The Price of Honor
by StarvingLunatic
Summary: Yori knows that being a ninja means going on missions, but she never expected her latest mission. It's really hard to believe what you can order out of magazines. ShegoYori. For Zaratan's Something Different, Something New contest.
1. Being a ninja ain't always great

I don't own these characters. I also don't own Veet. I don't own iPods. I also don't own Marvin the Martian.

Marvin the Martian: I claim this pairing in the name of Mars.

SL: Hey, wait a minute!—punts Marvin— I claim this pairing in the name of Earth!

A/N: Yeah, so I've never seen this pairing before, so I'm going to give it a try.

The Price of Honor

1: Being ninja ain't always great

Drakken was going over his bills. He figured since he was a genius, he could balance his own books and everything; Shego figured that it was just another thing for him to screw up at. She was mostly right, especially since he was starting to see that he might have to borrow money from her again to pay…well, her. He doubted that would go over well, especially if he had to explain that one.

"She'll get all huffy and start with the hurting words and then the hitting," he muttered, feeling her sting already.

The scientist started to look at the expenses that came from henchmen, hoping that there would be some answer there for his budget problem. He thought that maybe he could skim money from them and funnel it to Shego's paycheck, but as he eyed the paper, he started thinking. The henchmen were almost as expensive as Shego and they did much less work. They were more pleasant to be around than Shego, but pleasant did not steal the components that he required to take over the world. If he held off on paying them, then he could pay Shego, but he knew that he was just going to eventually have the same problem again if not next month then the one after that. It was always like that.

The cerulean-skinned male frowned and huffed in anger since it seemed like he was always going to be in debt. He cleared his desk by sweeping his arms across the table like a spoiled, angry child. He folded his arms across his chest, wrinkling his cobalt jumpsuit. Drakken turned his heated obsidian eyes to the floor where he pushed all of his papers and noticed some magazines mixed in with his finances. He would not have thought anything of it, but one of the magazines was open and it was opened to a very interesting advertisement.

Drakken stood up and went to retrieve the magazine to get a better look at the ad. His expression melted from upset to intrigued, the wheels in his head turning once again. Maybe what he needed was cheaper and more competent help than what his henchmen were providing. After all, Shego was worth more than all of his henchmen put together and there was only one of her. Even though Shego's check alone was as much as the henchmen put together, she still did infinitely more than they did, so they were costing him much more in his opinion. So, maybe instead of having a bunch of worthless henchmen, he should get one more Shego.

"One that's not as snippy," he mused, mumbling thoughtfully to himself. Yeah, one more Shego would be nice, but one that did not have all of the extra mouth and hopefully one that did not want as much money as Shego.

Despite Shego's smart-mouth, Drakken valued her, of course. She did what he told her to do for the most part and she even hung out with him sometimes, sort of like a friend. She went to karaoke night with him and everything. She was supportive of him in her own weird way. Sure, she made fun of him all the time, but she never turned down a job once he got started, which she could easily do. Without Shego most of his projects would not even get off of the ground since it was not like he could steal most of the equipment that he needed.

"Why do I even have henchmen?" he wondered. He was pretty much throwing away money by having them around since Shego did everything. She got the equipment, she held off Kim Possible, and she helped him escape if not from the lair than from jail…most of the time anyway. It would definitely be a good move all around to find someone else as capable as Shego than keeping around a bunch of henchmen that did not do anything.

He scanned around for a phone or something to get in contract with the number on the ad, but the floor was totally cluttered. He supposed now, looking down at the mess that he made, clearing the desk with his forearms might not have been the wisest thing that he could have ever done. He bent down and started grumbling to himself as he began his search for the phone. He shouted his triumph to the ceiling when he came across the lost the device.

"Ha ha! Drakken—one, phone—zero!" he cheered as he set himself up against the desk and began dialing the number. He silently mused that it was a lot of numbers to dial, but he made it through. "This is probably my best idea this week!" he congratulated himself already.

He was proud to have figured out a way to reduce costs in his operation and he was probably going to raise efficiency. He did not even take into account all of the expenses that would go down if he had to let go all of his henchmen, like he would not have to worry about providing people with those red jumpsuits or feed a bunch of lazy, fat guys that probably could only catch Kim Possible if she had a steak tied around her waist.

"Why didn't I see this before when they couldn't open that pickle jar!" Drakken moaned to himself as he was put on hold. He then began humming the tune that was playing. It was a peppy song that was just making him feel even giddier about his plan. He smiled all the way through it.

* * *

Yori was meditating when she was summoned by Master Sensei. It was all a part of her morning ritual. She tended to devote much of time to her art, so when she woke up in the morning, she tended to do a couple of hours of Tai chi. She took a shower and ate breakfast. She then went into her mediation on normal days, but it would seem that she was not in a normal day anymore.

She broke out of her trance and hurried to his office in the main school building. She thought that it was disrespectful to keep Master Sensei waiting, so whenever he called for her, she always dropped whatever she was doing as soon as possible. She did such things out of courtesy and a deep respect for the man that she believed not only saved her life, but gave her a purpose.

Yori had lost her parents at a very early age. She had been left with family members that did not like her much and did not take great care of her. To be blunt, they treated her like a slave for the most part. She never did understand why. She ran away when she was seven and probably would have died on the streets if Master Sensei had not come across her. He brought her to Yamanouchi after she told him that she was an orphan and introduced her to the ninja arts, along with all sorts of stories about the heroic ninja that trained at the school. She had devoted her life to being a ninja from that point on and took it quite seriously, hoping to one day be like the honorable ninja that she heard tales about.

The light in the office was dull as usual since there was only one window open. Master Sensei was sitting against the wall with a small table in front of him. There was a paper on the table that he was focusing on.

"Sensei," Yori greeted him, bowing deeply as she spoke.

"I have a mission for you," Sensei informed the young ninja.

Yori nodded to show that she understood. Ever since she graduated the school and became a full-fledged, well-respected ninja, she was given missions like every other ninja at the school. She did not have many problems with taking on missions now, but the first time she had been given a real assignment had been a different story. She was still adjusting mentally to tasks, but it worked better for her to think that she was over her issues with things.

"Here's your contract and your instructions," Sensei said while rolling up the paper that was sitting on his desk. He sealed it by wrapping a string around it and then he handed it over.

"I will do my best," Yori replied sincerely.

The old man nodded and smiled a bit. "I know you will. You're free to leave at any time."

Yori nodded and bowed again before exiting the building. The only time that she was allowed to leave the school was when she went out on assignments because she had yet to earn any other privileges. Being a ninja at Yamanouchi was all about earning rights through succeeding in missions. Missions were what kept the school going because that was how the ninjas earned their money, like their ancestors. None of the students at the school paid tuition, so something was needed to keep the operation moving and that was sending the graduates out on missions.

Once Yori was outside, she untied her assignment instructions. She read what was she was supposed to do and was shocked to see that she had a long-term mission. She was being hired out indefinitely, as long as her new boss could pay for her services, she would be there. She was going to be acting as a "lackey." Her eyebrows curled near each other; she was confused as to why her mission was described as "lackey." She was used to cryptic language being used in contracts, but she never saw the word "lackey" before. She supposed that she was going to have to have her new employer explain that to her.

* * *

"Uh…Doctor D, where are all the henchmen going?" Shego asked curiously as she entered the main room of the lair. She noticed a bunch of men in street clothes walking the opposite way and they were carrying boxes full of their personal junk.

"They're fired. We don't need them anymore!" Drakken declared proudly, standing haughtily with his hands behind his back and a smug look on his face.

"We don't need the henchmen anymore?" Shego echoed in a puzzled tone and a raven eyebrow arched high in the air. She could not argue that one since she figured that they did not need them much in the first place. Just about the only thing they were good for was heavy lifting. A crane and a forklift could do the same thing that they did with less complaining and no medical expenses.

"Nope!" he proclaimed with a grin.

"And why don't we need the henchmen anymore?" she asked while going to stand near Drakken. She found mocking him face-to-face was better than doing it a few feet away.

"Because I've come up with something even better."

"Better how? What'd you come up with?" she inquired, feeling that she was about to be on something that would keep her amused for the rest of the day.

"Only this, Shego." He held up the magazine that he found the other day and showed it to Shego.

"You came up with 'how to have smoother legs longer'?" she asked with a tiny smile.

Drakken balked at the question and pulled the magazine back to see what Shego was going on about. He saw that the page he showed her as a "Veet" advertisement. He huffed and grumbled angrily as he started flipping through the magazine to find what he was talking about. Once he got to the page, he handed the magazine back to his sidekick, practically shoving the book into her hands.

"Tell me you didn't," Shego said while holding in her laughter as she looked down at what Drakken showed her.

"I called the number," he boasted.

Oh, god, Shego thought. She could not believe how proud he seemed of things. She bit her lip to try to keep herself from laughing, but it was not enough. It was just way too much for her. The emerald-eyed thief burst out, laughing long and loud. She had to hold her sides and bend down from the heartiness of the laugh.

"Laugh all you want, Shego—" the mad scientist started, but she cut him off before he could do any further.

"Thank you, I will!" she remarked while continuing on getting a good laugh at his expense.

He was not fazed by her typical behavior. "I'll have you know this'll save us all sorts of money and I won't be behind on with your paycheck anymore," he stated soundly.

"I'll believe that when I see it," she scoffed while wiping away tears from laughing so hard. "Oh, god, I can't even believe this. You actually fell for this!" she said, going back to laughing. She pointed to the ad in the magazine, figuring it might annoy him, which would just make things better for her.

"Look, this'll definitely work," he argued strongly, folding his arms across his chest because of her reaction to his brilliant move.

"You ordered a ninja out of a magazine and you think it'll work? Oh, man this is too much! I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Shego hooted while placing a hand on the floor to keep herself from falling over.

"It will work! My ninja should be here in four to six business days," he countered, stomping his foot.

"This is just too much! And this is why you're firing all of the henchmen because of a hired ninja out of a magazine!"

Drakken turned his attention away from the skeptical sidekick. Shego was now on the floor laughing at him. He watched the henchmen and made sure they all got out of the lair. He was sad to see them go. After all, they had seen him through some trying times, but it was time to move on to bigger and better things. He needed to save some money.

* * *

Yori was dropped off by helicopter by one of the Yamanouchi ninja. She was dressed in casual clothing because she was not going out on a mission right away. She was wearing a dark blue skirt with a v-neck, sleeveless light blue shirt, showing off her tanned skin for the most part. Her hair was pulled back with her usual red headband. She had a large backpack on since she was not sure how long she would be staying with her employer as a "lackey." She silently noted that she did not like the sound of the word. She was not sure what it was, but the way it rolled around in her head just did not feel right.

"This whole thing doesn't feel right," Yori muttered to herself.

The ninja warrior walked through an open wide door, which appeared to be in a volcano from the rocky outside. She was used to things being in or on mountains, so as long as it was not a live volcano, she did not think that anything was wrong with there being a dwelling in the place. As she was coming in, she took in her surroundings. The walls were a mix of the natural stone from the mountain and steel from the building within. There was a long corridor that was pretty bare, nothing on the walls and nothing on the floor. She noticed some cameras and small circles around the place that she suspected were electronic eyes that did not seem to be on. She tried to avoid the cameras on instinct, even though she was supposed to be there.

She noticed a bunch of men coming down the hall as if they were leaving while she was going in. She wondered why that was, considering that it might just be a busy day for them, until she overheard some of them talking. Many of them were grumbling about losing their jobs. Others were talking about going to work for a mad scientist that paid better.

"Mad scientist?" Yori echoed, slightly bemused. She wondered if they meant "mad scientist" like the ones she read about in books and comics. She doubted it; those were just make-believe, right?

She continued on going through a long corridor. She continued going by departing men with boxes. She noted that they had basically two body types between them. There were some that looked what she would consider overweight and then others that appeared to be suffering from malnutrition. She could not help entertaining the idea that the larger ones ate all the food from the smaller ones. She dismissed those thoughts as she came to one open room off to the side. She looked inside, seeing some more men moving about and also two stationary people. She decided that she would go speak with the two people that did not appear to be busy.

As Yori stepped into the open room, she noticed that there was a large wall-mounted screen off on the far side. She passed by a circular table that had a light hanging over it, which curiously only had two seats despite the fact that there seemed to be dozens of people in the building. There were mechanical pieces lying about the area and a large machine setup off to her right. It did not appear to be on and she could not even begin guessing what it might be for.

She turned her attention back to the two people that were just standing around. She noted that they were a bit different than the other people around the place. First of all, one of them was a woman. The only woman that the ninja had seen so far. Second of all, both of them were sporting some rather odd skin tones. The male's body type was also different from all of the other men that she had seen so far.

Yori took in their stances to try to figure them out. The woman, whose skin looked white with a green undertone, was standing impatiently. It seemed like she was annoyed with something. There was an underlying edge to her as if she was dangerous in some way. Yori supposed that she would have to wait and see if that was the truth or if the woman's body could lie well enough to make her come off as something fierce.

The man was standing like he was upset, but there seemed something else to him. His stance was a bit tense, almost like he was impatient too, but in a different way from the female next to him. She did not pick up a vibe from his body that he was dangerous physically speaking. There was still something about him that bothered her, though.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a Mister Doctor Drakken," Yori said quite politely to the pair, getting them to turn to her since they were paying attention to the departing henchmen.

"I'm Drakken. Who are you and how'd you get in here?" the cerulean scientist inquired with a puzzled voice. "Shego, have you been unplugging the security system again to recharge your iPod?" he demanded to know.

"As if this is my fault. Don't try to blame me if your stupid system can't stop a little girl from getting in," Shego retorted with a scoff.

Drakken frowned and then turned his attention back to Yori. "Look, I don't want to buy any cookies or magazines or whatever you're selling…unless you have chocolate chip anyway," he commented, hope in his voice with that last bit. He could really go for some cookies and milk right now.

Yori's face scrunched up from the exchange. She did not know what to make of them. Drakken seemed to be a bit strange, beyond the fact that he was sky blue color. It was almost like there was something wrong with his mind. The woman, Shego, did not seem to have the patience for him.

"Um…I'm not selling anything," the petite ninja replied in a confused tone.

"No, then what do you want? We're very busy here," Drakken declared quite seriously.

"Busy laughing our asses off," Shego muttered while filing her nails. She had only just stopped laughing from hearing that Drakken hired a ninja from an ad in a magazine.

"I'm looking for Mister Doctor Drakken. I'm from Yamanouchi. My name is Yori," she introduced herself to her current boss. She bowed to him, which seemed to surprise him. The scientist stepped back and looked at the slender ninja with a puzzled expression on his face.

"You're the ninja I ordered?" he squeaked in disbelief.

Yori's graceful features twisted a bit, but she forced her face to go back to normal seconds later. The way he described it made it wound like she was some book that he got off the internet. She was not "ordered." She was hired, like a person. Unused to such blatant and open disrespect toward her, Yori did not even know what to say.

"This is your big plan?" Shego asked as she got a good look at Yori. So far, the girl had been nothing but polite, seeming almost docile. She probably did not weigh a hundred pounds, the sidekick thought. After taking in the sight of the Japanese girl, she was at it again, laughing her head off.

"But, I wanted someone better!" Drakken cried.

"Better?" Yori echoed in disbelief. He had not even seen her in action and he was already judging her. It was infuriating. She took a deep, calming breath, reminding herself that she had a mission to carry out. She had a responsibility to her school, so it would not be a good thing to knock her employer unconscious.

"They sent you a junior high school student!" Shegi remarked, her head bent down from laughing so hard.

"What the! Where's that magazine? I'm calling that number back and complain about being ripped off!" Drakken huffed while whipping his head around to hopefully locate that rip-off magazine.

"That's what you get for ordering ninja out of underworld magazines!" his green-skinned sidekick commented, tears coming from her eyes. Oh man, Drakken was seriously making her day with everything that was happening.

"I can assure you I'm quite capable of anything that you would have me do. I've brought my qualifications and everything if you'd like to see them," Yori said in a flat tone. She did not have to bring any of that stuff considering the fact that Drakken and Master Sensei had already faxed each other everything that they needed in the transaction.

"Yeah, I would," Drakken said, frowning deeply because of his displeasure with being sent a ninja that was probably twelve years old.

Yori went into her bag's side pocket and pulled out a folder. He snatched it, which caused a rare frown to mar her face. He mumbled as he went through the folder, reading off the things that she could supposedly do. He actually did not understand most of it considering the fact that he was not a ninja or even a martial artist.

"Ah, yes, well these appear to be in order. I guess I just expected you to be…older," he commented. He expected older, bigger, and, well, deadlier looking. Yori looked like she might have trouble beating up a panda plush toy.

"Lemme see that," Shego said as she snatched the folder from Drakken. She wanted to see what the papers claimed Yori could do. She would be shocked to find out that Yori was even old enough to vote. Her expression became more and more skeptical as she read the folder. "You expect me to believe you made up that many of your own ninja techniques?" she inquired, glancing up at the young Japanese woman.

"The list has actually been cropped," Yori answered honestly. She had been studying ninjitsu almost all of her life and she was rather talented at it. Mixed in with the fact that it was her passion, she had come up with quite a few techniques that work well with the fact that she was secretly into reading a lot of manga.

"Cropped, huh?" Shego mumbled in disbelief.

"Well then, Shego, why don't you show…what was your name again?" Drakken asked.

"Yori," the ninja answered with a sigh. She got the feeling that she was not going to be enjoying her new mission, not that she ever enjoyed a mission. It was just that she was certain on her list of "most hatred assignments," she was about to have a new number one.

"Yeah, Yori. Shego take Yori to a free room and show her around the lair to let her get comfortable with the place," the onyx-eyed male ordered.

"Uh, Doctor D, do you think it's wise to just show a new girl around your whole operation without being sure she is who she says she is? She could be a GJ agent or something," Shego pointed out, not that she cared. There was only one goody-goody in the world that bothered her and that one did not work for GJ.

"Well, she just said—" Drakken started, but the plasma-wielder cut him off.

"And since when do we just take people's word on things," Shego pointed out with an upset huff.

Drakken muttered and went to go run a check to make sure that Yori was who she said she was. Yori and Shego stood there, keeping the small distance that they had between them. Shego went back to checking over Yori's file while Yori noted the hostile vibes radiating from Shego. She figured if she had to work with Shego, things might be a bit difficult, especially since it was obvious that Shego did not trust her.

The green-skinned woman did seem to be more on the ball than her employer, Yori noted. Shego was going through things that took common sense, which Yori was not surprised that Drakken lacked after interacting with him for only a few minutes. Still, she got the feeling that Shego was not going to help her enjoy or even tolerate her mission.

Once Drakken was through with his checks, finding that Yori was legitimate…so to speak, he told Shego to show her to a room. Shego huffed and muttered something about not being the butler, but she did wave Yori on to follow her. Yori adjusted her backpack and then trotted out after the pale green woman.

"Um…excuse me…" Yori said in her usual polite tone.

"What?" Shego inquired in a huff.

"I was just wondering if you know what kind of work I'll be doing for Drakken-san," Yori replied. She would have referred to Drakken a bit more formally if he had shown her more respect.

"Knowing Drakken, you'll probably just be stealing junk since he can't seem to invent stuff on his own, even though he wants everyone to think he's a genius," Shego remarked.

Yori nodded to show that she understood that. She had had previous missions that involved stealing. The first time, it had bothered her a great deal, but Sensei reminded her that as a ninja, she worked for those that hired her and did not ask any questions once the contract was drawn up and agreed upon. She worked passed her moral issue with stealing by not wondering what things were for or who they belonged to before she got her hands on them. Well, she liked to tell herself that she worked passed it.

"Well, kid, here's your digs. Don't bother me for anything," Shego said quietly rudely while dropped Yori off at the first empty room that they came across.

"Thank you…" Yori said graciously, bowing to the green-skinned female.

"I'm Shego," the sidekick introduced herself blandly, waving off Yori's formalities.

"Thank you, Shego-san. I'm—" Yori tried to introduce herself, but she was cut off.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got that, kid," the pale female commented and she turned to leave the area.

Shego abandoned Yori at the doorway. Well, it was apparent that Shego did not like her. The Japanese young woman figured that she would not be making any friends on her mission, which was not something that she was looking to do anyway. Assignments were there for money to be made and to keep her school going. She did not need friends anyway.

The ninja looked into her new room, which was bare. Yori sighed and stepped into the room; the automatic door slid shut behind her, echoing loudly in her ears, telling her that she was trapped. She felt as empty as the barren room. She looked down while running her fingers through her straight ebony hair. She could not shake the bad feeling that was following her more closely than her shadow thanks to her new assignment.

* * *

Next time: Yori and Shego have to work together, which they have a tough time of.


	2. Right way, wrong way

I don't own these characters.

2: Right way, wrong way

"Shego!" Drakken called loudly.

"What have we said about the inside voice when I'm right next to you?" Shego teased.

The pale woman was sitting less than ten feet away with her feet kicked up on a table and a magazine in hand. She was now careful about what magazines she brought and left around the lair. She did not want Drakken ordering any samurai warriors or Templar knights out of the things next. So, she was reduced to reading "Better Lairs and Weapons" since there not many ads in it and none of those ads included hiring people.

"This is no time to get snippy, Shego. I've got my next brilliant idea!" he declared, throwing a hand up in triumph thanks to his great mind.

"And by brilliant you mean 'doomed to be a complete and utter failure,'" she remarked, eyes still on the magazine.

"It's that kind of defeatist attitude that ruins all of my fool-proof plans," he huffed, frowning in her direction, even though she was not paying him any mind.

"Really? And here it is I thought it was because all of your ideas are hopelessly complicated or just plain dumb."

"That'll be enough out of you, Shego. Now, I need you and…what's her name again?" Drakken stopped to look thoughtful, trying to recollect the new girl's name.

"Yori," Shego offered, bored.

He arched an eyebrow in confusion. "You're a what?" he asked.

Shego sighed and hit herself in the head. "Oy," she muttered in annoyance. "Yori is the ninja girl's name. I think you were trying to remember her name."

"Oh, right. Yori. Yes, take Yori and go get the omni-power cell from this lab," Drakken ordered her while handing her a card with a name and a picture on. The card was for her to know where she was going to and to see what the device looked like, so she knew what to steal.

"The omni-power cell?" she echoed in a bewildered tone. Who named these things anyway?

"It's an unlimited power source. I'm going to use it to make a weather machine, which takes a lot of power," Drakken informed her.

"Uh…didn't we do that once before?" she asked.

"There's a difference here. I'm going to use the weather machine to seed the clouds and rain down my brain washing shampoo on it," he explained with a grin, clearly proud of his plan.

"You still have that junk?" she inquired in disbelief. That plan was made a couple of years ago, after all.

"Look, it didn't sell very well and I made a lot of it, so I have to use it for something," he pointed out.

Shego shrugged; she could not argue that one. She got up from her seat, leaving her magazine behind, and went to go get Yori. She was tempted to just leave without the so-called ninja, but she was not in favor of letting Yori get paid for probably reading hot-boy magazines in her room. So, she walked down the corridor to the room that she set Yori up in.

The green-skinned woman had not been by the room since she put Yori in it a few days ago. Yori was a quiet kid, she noted, because she had not seen the young woman since then. She was not even sure if Yori had been out of the room since she showed up; she was right about that.

"Hey, kid," Shego called into the room as she just walked in. She was surprised to find herself surrounded by darkness. Her body tensed and was automatically on guard.

Yori did not have any of the lights on in her room, covering the place in pitch-black shadows. Unlike most people, the night comforted Yori. It gave her a sense of being completely alone in the universe and allowed her to calm herself down; things had been like that since she was younger. When she was a child, she knew that she was safe in the dark because it meant that no one that wanted to hurt her could find her. So, darkness for her was like a pair of loving arms, soothing away any ill feelings, which worked out for her later on in life since she did become a ninja.

Yori had been in the dark since she was given the room, meditating most of the time when she was not sleeping. She had been trying to clear an anxious feeling out of her body since she arrived at Drakken's lair. Something was making her uneasy, tearing at her mind, making her wish that she did not have to do uphold her contract. Unfortunately, she could not pay the feeling any mind since she had to go ahead with the contract until Master Sensei told her otherwise. So, the best that she could do was attempt to will the uneasiness away to make sure that she could function to the best of her ability and uphold her school's honor.

"Kid," Shego called again as she took a step deeper into the room, her muscles tensing a bit more.

"My name is Yori," the ninja stated, causing Shego to jump because the voice was coming from behind her.

"Don't sneak up on me!" Shego growled as she whipped around to face the younger warrior. The pale woman's hands instantly balled into fists, ready to throw down. She could hardly make out Yori's features, even with the dull light from the hall coming into the room that seemed to be as dark as space.

"I wasn't aware I was sneaking," Yori answered honestly. It was her way to step silently at all times. Also, it was her room, not that a person would be able to tell it was anyone's room from looking at it. But, the point was that if anything, Shego was the one that was sneaking, creeping into her space without her permission. She was not impressed with the fact that the older woman had not sensed her so close by.

Shego made a scoff-like noise while silently forcing herself to relax. "C'mon, we got a thing to do," she stated in a gruff tone. She was upset with the fact that the younger woman had surprised her.

"A thing?" Yori echoed in a puzzled tone with a face to match.

Shego sighed; apparently, she was working with another genius. "A thing. A job," she elaborated.

The ninja nodded to show that she understood. "Oh. What're we doing?"

"Stealing some kinda power cell or whatever. Same old, same old. You'll get used to it. Doctor D gets these crazy ideas, he sends us out to yank things from high powered labs, even though he's supposed to be this big genius or whatever, and then the plan fails. It's sort of a formula," Shego explained in a bored tone.

"I don't understand," Yori admitted, shaking her head, even though Shego could not see the motion fully. She did note that her brain did not like the layout that Shego just gave her, even though it sounded like something that she typically did. She had had quite a few missions that involved stealing, but not for some grand scheme.

"You'll catch on real fast. So, c'mon. Let's just get this over with," the super-powered woman commented.

Yori did not argue because her job was to listen to her employer. Sure, Shego was not her employer, but she was carrying a message for the man. So, for the moment, she would listen to the pale sidekick. She took a moment to change clothing, getting into her black mission gear, which only made Shego roll her eyes when she saw.

Yori left with Shego, curious as to how things were going to go. Yori was not accustomed to working with someone else when she had missions. She preferred working alone when she was doing most of missions anyway. If she was the only witness, then later on she could act like it never happened. Despite the fact that she willing went on assignments, she was still bothered by taking something that was not hers. She did it because she owed her school and to uphold her school honor, she had to take and complete assignments. Missions also kept the school going and she wanted to help the school in whatever way Master Sensei saw fit.

There was also the fact that Yori was not so confident of Shego's abilities. She had managed to get the drop on the pale woman without even trying. It seemed too simple to her, so she doubted that Shego could do much if it was so easy to "sneak up" on her. She was not the only one skeptical on the new partnership.

Shego was not used to pulling job with a partner that was supposed to help. Yes, she was used to Drakken tagging along for whatever reason, but she was not used to taking someone with her that was supposed to actually pull her own weight. And although Yori did not seem to weigh much, Shego doubted that the girl would be able to pull anything at all.

To Shego, Yori looked like a regular harmless teenage girl. The Japanese woman probably did not know a damn thing about breaking into a kindergarten, so a highly secure lab was laughable for her to even try in Shego's opinion. She figured that Yori's idea of stealing probably involved her borrowing pants from a friend and not returning them. She definitely was not buying the fact that Yori was a ninja considering the fact that Drakken was able to order her services from a magazine ad. After all, what kind of a reliable ninja school advertised in villain magazines? Wherever Yori came from was probably just some scheme that Drakken fell for. She did discount the fact that Yori was able to sneak up on her; it was probably just an accident, she concluded.

"Look, just don't get in my way on this thing," Shego said to Yori as they walked off toward the hoverport to pick up a ride.

Yori shrugged, not really having much to say. She would stay away from Shego if that was what the older woman wanted, especially if the older woman wanted to do the job a different way than Yori figured would be best. She was not about to be caught doing something disgraceful by following around someone that probably did not know what she was doing.

Shego sucked her teeth, apparently expecting an argument. In fact, Shego did not know what to do since no argument came up and she sat there silent for a good deal of the time while flying the hovercraft. Yori did not mind the lack of conversation, preferring the silence as it gave her a chance to focus on the task at hand. They did not speak to each other again until they got to the highly secure lab; they debated which way was best to enter the place to acquire their target.

"Look, we're going this way. End of discussion," Shego said soundly while pointing down at a blueprint. She wanted to go the shortest distance while Yori wanted to go the path of least resistance, believing it would be faster. They both thought that the other was stupid for wanting to go a different way and they both actually had the same reaction.

"That way could be a lot trouble," Yori objected strongly, but almost politely. She knew that working with the green-skinned woman would more than likely let to her capture while doing something that would leave her burning with shame if she was even caught. She refused to let some wannabe shame her.

"Your way could take all night," Shego replied. Like hell she was going to go all around the lab just to avoid all of the cameras and guards. She had better things to do with her life.

"But, it results in us getting away without a problem," Yori stated.

"Like hell it does. All we need is one guard to wander close by and we're stuck in one spot for the whole damn night," the pale woman huffed.

"I am not going to be caught," the ninja said soundly in a flat tone.

"You'll end up sleeping in the damn vent if you go that way."

Yori was done arguing, figuring that Shego was just being a stubborn woman that did not want to admit that her way was wrong. She was not going to waste her breath, Yori decided. She needed to stay focused on the task at hand anyway, she reminded herself. So, she turned her head, looking in the direction that she wanted to go. Shego did the same and they silently came to the same decision. They walked away without another word, each going her own way.

"Dumb kid's probably gonna get caught," Shego thought to herself, not that she cared. She did not want to go out for every caper that Drakken send her on with a fool kid anyway.

"She's probably going to get caught," Yori figured while putting on her black hood to hide her face.

* * *

Shego sucked her teeth as her shortest route proved to be quite aggravating. She stumbled across couple guards that spotted her and had to take them out. She tried to be quick about it, getting behind them and using her knockout touch. That still was holding her up and it was not enjoyable. She would be annoyed if she found out that little so-called ninja girl actually made it to their target before her. She was going to be very annoyed.

* * *

Yori dropped into the lab from the vent. She had had to go around several different areas to avoid guards, cameras, and laser eyes, but she was in the lab first, she noted. She ducked for cover as soon as she hit the floor, even though she had already scanned the room from up above. She preferred being safe than sorry.

Once she was certain that she was the only person in the lab, she stood up to grab the omni-power cell. She noted that Shego was not around, as expected. She knew that her way was better, she thought smugly. A slightly arrogant smirk actually graced her usually humble features.

"I knew that woman was not efficient," Yori muttered, feeling like her initial belief of Shego held true. After all, what kind of thief went out in such a bright color like green? She could easily be seen, which Yori thought just showed Shego's incompetence.

Nothing about the green-skinned woman seemed professional to Yori. From what she could tell, Shego did not take what they were doing seriously. She did not take their employer seriously. Shego's whole attitude seemed wrong for what they were supposed to be doing. Yori was glad to not have gone Shego's way, which would explain why she was still smirking to herself.

She went to get the cell, which was sitting harmlessly on a mostly clear table nearby. Shego had shown her a picture of the thing, so she knew what it looked like. It was about the size of a DVD player, but black in color with one side that had plugholes in it for wires. She wrapped her arms around it and was about to just take it off of the table, but ran into a problem; it was heavy. Very, very heavy.

The ninja took a deep breath, looking to focus her energy and strength into her task. She then tried to lift it again, but found that no matter how much she concentrated, she definitely would not be able to lift the battery out of the lab. Her heart sank as she thought about how she was going to fail her first mission with her new employer and bring shame to her school. She was going to let Master Sensei down; she felt ready to panic at the very thought of disappointing the man that saved her life.

Yori's breathing sped up a bit and her heart clenched in her chest, paining her intensely. She put a hand to her chest while placing the other one on the table, looking to support her weight while she had an episode, which was new to her. Sensei had faith in her to do a job, to keep the school financed, and to not make him a liar from the way that he sang her praises to her employer. She took her hand from her chest and put it to her forehead while continuing to pant. She began rubbing her head as if it would cure all of her ills. She then jumped as she heard a familiar smartass voice.

"What's the matter, kid? Too heavy?" Shego seemed to tease as she came up from behind Yori. She had a haughty smirk on her face now, even though on the inside she was pissed that Yori had beat her to the objective.

The ninja could not speak for a moment. She could not believe that Shego had managed to sneak up on her. She could argue that it was because she let her guard down, but that was horrible on her account too, so it was only adding insult to injury for her. Added to the fact that Shego had surprised her, Yori noted that the older woman looked just as she did when they were on the roof, nonchalant and intact, even though it was a given that she had run into guards. She dared think that there might be more to Shego than what she was willing to give the pale female before.

Shego was willing to concede to herself that maybe there was a bit more to Yori than she was willing to give the Japanese girl before. After all, Yori had beaten her to the omni-power cell. Maybe she did have some skills, Shego considered. She did not have any muscles though, since she did not seem to be able to lift the power cell. So, Shego doubted that she had to worry much about the kid being better than she was; hey, she made it to the cell easily, even if Yori beat her to it, and she was more than likely going to be able to carry the battery considering the fact that she was stronger than the average person, or even average martial artist.

"It's…" Yori trailed off, not sure what to say. It was too heavy and she doubted that they would be able to get it out of there. After all, if it took both of them to carry the thing, then they were going to have to exit down the hall, which would be the only thing wide enough for them to fit through. They would then have to worry about guards, cameras, and whatever else was there. "It's much too heavy for us to safely leave with."

"So says you, little girl. You probably should eat your spinach, so you can grow up big and strong like me," Shego remarked, smiling like a demon since she felt like she was coming out ahead of the game now.

Yori was not following the taunting completely. "It's much heavier than it looks," she insisted.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, heavy for your little arms maybe," Shego said while yanking the power cell from the tabletop with little problem. "Whoa," she muttered as she felt the weight under her arm, but held a handle on the item. Yori was not kidding, it was much heavier than it looked.

The ninja could not believe her eyes and her mouth fell open for a moment as she watched Shego carry the battery, exiting the way that she came in. Yori followed Shego into the vent and they rapidly fled the building. The ninja was suddenly impressed by the fact that Shego could hold onto something that weighed so much and that she was able to carry it like it was nothing. She considered that she might have to completely reassess the pale woman.

Shego was starting to think the same of Yori. After all, Yori had made it to the cell before her, even if she was not able to pick it up. Also, Yori had not been the one that let the guards know that there was someone in the building that did not belong. Then there was the fact that Yori was not just keeping up with her on the getaway, but overtaking her on it. Sure, she could blame the fact that she was carrying a heavy piece of hot equipment, but the competitor in her did not even think of that. She was just pushing herself to keep up with the little ninja.

They made it to the hovercraft with no problem and got away before any of the good guys showed up. They went back to the lair in silence, mostly mulling over the facts that they learned on that first job. They were both considering that they might actually want to get to know each other. Maybe things were not as bad as they thought. Yori even conceded that she might be able to learn something from Shego, like how to build more strength to carry something so heavy.

* * *

"Here's your stupid battery," Shego huffed as she and Yori walked into the lair.

Shego slammed the stolen item on the table for no other reason than to watch Drakken jump from the shock. He did not disappoint, hopping out of his seat in a panic when the noise echoed through the large room. The green-skinned woman smirked, looking rather amused by his reaction, which Yori noticed. The ninja wondered if Shego had done that on purpose and if so, why?

"It's not a battery, Shego!" Drakken huffed as he stood up and walked over to the device. "It's a…"

As Drakken began going into exactly what the omni-power cell was, Shego made a mocking, disinterested face and moved her hand to mimic his talking. The light blue scientist understandably did not take kindly to that and hollered in frustration with his sidekick. Shego snickered a bit while Yori just stood back rather confused with the whole exchange. The ninja did note something odd, which was the fact that she wanted to laugh at Shego's antics.

"Shego!" Drakken hollered, getting so worked up thanks to her that there was a vein throbbing from his forehead.

"Look, what it is and what it does, I don't care," Shego informed her boss. And then she just added to it to see if it would get to Drakken. "And she doesn't care either." Shego pointed to Yori with both index fingers.

"But—" Drakken tried to start up again.

"Nope, still don't care. You need us for anything else?" the pale villainess inquired.

"Uh…no…"

"Okay, we're gone then," Shego said while throwing an arm around Yori's shoulders, almost as if they were buddies, which Yori thought was odd.

Yori looked down at the arm and wondered what to make of the action. Shego just wanted to get a hold of the ninja to make sure she did not disappear for a moment, nothing more that. She wanted to investigate something, which required Yori. She then pulled the Japanese woman out of the main hall before Drakken could get into one of his typical rants.

"Um…Shego-san, that wasn't very respectful," Yori pointed out while trying not to tense over the fact that she did not like Shego's arm around her shoulders. She was not used to such close contact without hitting being involved.

"Yeah, I know. If you're gonna hang around here, kid, you gotta learn Doctor D's here to sign checks and come up with goofy ideas, not to be respected," Shego stated. She did notice that the ninja was not very comfortable with her arm being where it was, which was why she left it there.

Yori nodded slowly, showing that she understood, but not very well. Drakken would not be the first person to hire her that did not deserve any respect, but she had never seen anyone openly mock an employer like Shego did with Drakken. In fact, Yori was not sure if she had ever seen someone so openly rude like Shego was, except for maybe Fukushima and he was not even that way to most people.

"Um…Shego-san, I would like to apologize to you," Yori said out of the blue. She figured that she might as well get it out of the way. She was not so full of herself that she could not admit when she was wrong and it would make her feel better, as she did feel quite horrid for prejudging the pale woman.

"Apologize to me?" Shego stopped and looked at the younger woman with a puzzled expression on her face. It was not everyday that someone apologized to her, not without a boot in the ass anyway. She did not even notice, but that statement got her to drop her arm from Yori's shoulders.

"Yes, I owe you an apology."

An eyebrow arched. "For?" the villainess inquired.

"I believe I judged you most improperly. While I still don't agree with the way you took to carry out the mission and your seemingly laidback attitude toward the mission, you were the one that completed the assignment. I must apologize for such thinking and conclusions that were drawn before I saw you in action." Yori bowed ever-so slightly.

"Ah, don't think anything of it." Shego shrugged because she was so stunned that she was getting an apology over what someone thought of her. She had done the same thing anyway, not that she would be apologizing for it. What went on in her head was her own business until she decided to share, after all.

Yori nodded again. "I would like to know how you managed to lift that heavy thing."

"Well, I'd like to know how you outran me, so it seems like we're even with a secret a piece," Shego remarked with a chuckle. She did not notice that her comment and tone was damn near relaxed and not snippy.

"Um…I was wondering…from the way you carry yourself, I'm going to assume you're a martial artist. Is that correct?" the ninja inquired. It would help explain how Shego escaped her heavily guarded route without a mark on her.

The green sidekick shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

Yori took that information in. Okay, well, maybe that was a good way for her to get to know Shego, she thought. She could understand exactly what the oddly colored woman was capable of to avoid misjudging her again. Besides, there was only so much she could do in practicing on her own and mediating.

"Um…would you like to spar with me?" Yori proposed, sounding almost shy. From what she could tell with Shego's attitude, she was prepared to hear the answer of "go to Hell."

Shego considered the question. Maybe that would be a good idea. She could get a handle on the kid and figure out if she should take the so-called ninja seriously. She would be able to figure out if she was willing to put up with Yori.

"Yeah, sure," the green-skinned thief replied as if it was no big deal. "We'll go do that now."

Yori nodded and followed Shego to an open area in the lair that was a rarely used gym. There were pieces of exercise equipment around the room that most of the henchmen never used. Shego was usually in there and was used to the deserted feel of the place. There was something of a boxing ring that probably had a colony of cobwebs in it. Well, they were about to change that.

"Any rules or anything?" Shego inquired as they stepped over to the ring, which was really a couple of thin blue mats that were roped off from the rest of the gym.

"Well, it wouldn't be wise for one of us to hurt the other too much. We might have to go out again sometime soon," Yori pointed out.

"Kid, you'll find it damn hard to hurt me," the pale woman seemed to boast. The smirk on her face made it seem like her arrogance was talking.

"Shego-san, my name is not 'kid.' It is Yori," the ninja commented for the second time that day.

"You want me to call you Yori, you're going to have to make me," Shego remarked with a taunting smile on her face.

Yori nodded and that was all, which stunned Shego. Once again, the Japanese girl offered up no argument for Shego to feed off. They prepared for the sparring match by simply stepping into the ring. They usually would have changed their clothing, but it seemed that they were both still taking each other lightly. It was as if they believed that the other could not force them to work up a sweat.

They turned to each other. Yori bowed to Shego, who only scoffed while putting her hands up. Shego went at Yori before she could stand up properly from her respectful bow. She put her hands up just in time to avoid being struck.

"You need to pay attention, kid," Shego remarked, still smiling like the cat that ate the canary.

"Shego-san, I'm going to make you say my name," Yori countered, smiling a bit her, but she did not know it. Yori had never interacted with someone like Shego and it seemed to be affecting her already.

* * *

Next time: Shego and Yori start to get along.


	3. Her way, my way

I don't own these characters.

3: Her way, my way

While Doctor Drakken was busy tinkering with his new toy, Shego and Yori began to bond through the one thing that they had in common as far as they knew: fighting. They fought each other every day for a week without much else in between, but eventually it did open them up to more. Fighting led to talking, though; Shego had to goat Yori into going back and forth with her because Yori seemed to be naturally quiet. But, Shego had enough lip to go around and eventually, she got the ninja to start talking smack. Shego was such a bad influence.

"You call that a kick? I've seen kittens with deadlier strikes," Yori remarked as she put her forearm up to block Shego's leg; see, the pale woman was a bad influence. The blow landed against her bare arm. She was fighting in a regular tank top and black sweat pants.

Hardly a week ago, Yori would have never thought to make such a statement. It was just that being around the green-skinned sidekick seemed to have infected her somehow. She was not used to all of the trash talk that Shego did through out sparring and the fact that Shego seemed to somehow urge her to say something back. She had resisted the urge for a while, but now it was tugging at her, pulling words out of her mouth and just egging Shego on to talk more. The pale woman was happy to finally get some conversation out of the Japanese woman.

"Funny since I've seen kittens deadlier than you point blank," Shego countered while pulling her leg back. She was dressed in a similar fashion with a green tank-top and black sweat shorts.

Despite all of her talk, Shego was learning that Yori could easily get the better of her in sparring. She did not use her powers much and she only did claw strikes when she was certain that she would miss. She was not looking to really hurt Yori, much like Yori was not looking seriously hurt her. They had found a mutual respect for each other since their first job together and over the past few sparring sessions.

Shego found that Yori was not anything like she had judged the young woman when they met. First of all, Yori was old enough to vote, not a junior high school student as she first assumed; Yori was going to be nineteen in a couple of months. She was quite the capable ninja, but she was a little naïve. Shego learned that from the fact that when Yori started digging into her while they were sparring, the pale woman could easily through her off her game by throwing a little sexual innuendo at her. The ninja practically fell apart over some of the simplest remarks; well, they were simple in Shego's opinion.

"Yet I continue to best you," the younger woman commented.

"You think I'm taking you seriously?" the green-skinned female countered with a laugh.

Yori was also learning that Shego was not exactly like she thought. Now, she had recognized that Shego was dangerous and the pale woman was. Those plasma powers of hers were incredible. The first time that she saw Shego flare her hands, she was not sure what to think of it. She had seen quite a few things in her young life, yet she was still stuck in place for more time than recommended in a fight when Shego came at her with those flaming hands. She had not gotten the chance to see the limit of what Shego could do with them and she really did not want to. She had felt the heat from the plasma once when Shego let her anger get the better of her during a match and that was enough for her.

Shego was an emotional creature, Yori did note. The longer that they fought and the more that she tagged the pale woman, the more Shego was likely to let her anger reign over her, which made her pretty easy to defeat. She supposed that it would be a different story if Shego was using her plasma powers, but thankfully, Shego never let her fury control her to the point that she did use her powers full force. So, as emotional as the green-skinned woman might get, she never did lose sight of the fact that they were not out to truly injure or harm each other. It would seem that Shego had more control than her anger would leave most to believe.

Other than that, Yori noted that Shego was rude, but playful. The fact that her playfulness was starting to rub off did not go by Yori. She did not mind that. It was fun to do a little teasing and taunting, especially since Shego did not get upset with her for saying such things. After all, if she did such things at school, she would have been scolded and punished for such behavior because she would have been using it against teachers.

"You should take me seriously, Shego-san. You know that you cannot beat me," the ninja boasted.

"Kid, you don't know what I can do," the thief remarked with a confident smirk.

Yori attacked Shego, looking to pin her. They decided that whoever had the most pins that day would be the winner. So far, winning a match did not amount to much, mostly because Yori had won most of them and it did not occur to her to ask for something since she was the victor. It did not go by Shego that the ninja won most of their matches; it helped add to her respect for Yori. Besides, Shego liked to think that she could win a match if she was taking it totally seriously, but it was rare for her to take anything completely serious.

"My, my, Yori, if you wanted to get me on my back, all you had to do was ask," Shego purred while resisting the pressure that Yori was putting on her.

Yori understood that remark, mostly because Shego had gotten her to that point over the past few days. The purr helped her get what the pale woman was talking about. She wasted no time blushing, a crimson stain invading her cheeks. Her grip loosened and the tides were turned. Shego was able to push her to the mat.

"Although I like being on top more," the thief commented with a scandalous smirk. She licked her top lip a bit, just to bother the ninja more.

Yori was not sure how to react and merely blushed more, her whole face now deep red. It was fun for Shego to make Yori blush, which was why she used the sexual innuendo quite often against the Japanese teen. She thought that it made the little ninja look rather cute, not that Yori needed help in that area considering the fact that she had underlying childish quality to her.

Yori could not figure out why she blushed so much when Shego said dirty things to her. She just felt flustered in a way that she never did before. She did not know how she was supposed to take such words, but her body knew that it should blush whenever Shego said such things to her.

Shego let Yori up and they went back to their battling. They were getting used to each other already, learning to read each other after a couple of weeks. It probably had something to do with the fact that they had been going at it as if sparring was their job since Drakken did not seem to need them for anything. They spent all day in the gym for lack of a better thing to do and they were having a good time taking each other on.

"Why are you running?" Yori inquired, trying to get Shego to come at her. She learned that Shego was an offensive fighter, which she would have guessed just from the way that Shego let her anger get the better of her during combat. The pale woman needed more patience in her opinion.

"Just looking for room to do this," Shego replied and she surprised the ninja by leaping over her.

Yori turned around just in time to see a pale leg coming at her. She put her hands up, but was hit in the chest. She fell back from the power in the kick. She suspected that if Shego was really out to hurt her, she would have just broken several ribs with that hit considering the fact that Shego was much stronger than the average human being. She did not have time to think about that because Shego was on her, looking to pin her again.

By the end of the day, they were both covered in sweat and breathing quite hard. They were sitting on the mats and looking at each other. They were both mentally going over the number of pins they had.

"You won," Yori realized, pointing to Shego. It was not something that the ninja was used to at all, not just against the older woman. Yori was still getting accustomed to not winning, even a little friendly match. She did hide it well, though.

"I know I did. Well, since I won, I think I should get something," the pale woman declared with an arrogant grin.

"Um…okay," Yori conceded, not that she ever got anything for winning. "What do you want?" she asked, trying to hide her nervousness. She had a feeling that Shego was going to request something crazy.

Shego chuckled a bit, shaking her head as she laughed. Yori was quite the gracious and polite loser. She was going to have to teach the kid to stand up for herself…to other people, not to her of course. Well, before that, she figured that she would have some fun with the teen.

The thief looked up at Yori and smiled. It was an expression that Yori was used to seeing and it made her gulp. Shego then got on all fours and crawled over to the ninja, making Yori very uneasy. The ninja began backing up, which only tickled Shego on the inside. Yori's anxiety grew when she felt the ropes at her back, cutting of her escape. She held her breath as Shego continued forward, stopping only when they were face to face, nearly nose to nose.

Yori was not too sure why she was holding her breath, but she supposed that it was to prevent any accidents from happening. Although she doubted that it would be an accident as far as Shego was concerned. Not used to such playful human contact, Yori was not too sure if Shego was always playing when she made come-on comments to her. Some part of her believed that Shego was just kidding around while another part of her thought that Shego was serious. She was not sure what she thought about any of Shego's behavior, although her conscious mind wanted her to believe that she did not like it at all.

"She-she-she-Shego-san," Yori muttered with chattering teeth, for some reason hoping that would back the older woman up.

"Yes, little cherry blossom," Shego hummed, getting a real kick out of how nervous she was making the ninja. The nickname had come to mind a couple of days ago, thinking that it would help keep Yori distracted. She was right about that.

"Um…" A lone bead of sweat rolled down the ninja's cheek and it had nothing to do with the fact that they had just sparred for a few hours. She looked down at Shego, going almost cross-eyed since they were nearly nose to nose.

"You know, you should wear lip gloss," Shego remarked while pulling away and laughing.

Yori breathed a sigh of relief while some part of her brain was trying to insist that it knew Shego was not going to kiss her. That would just be weird, she thought. Well, maybe it would be weird, maybe not, some other part of her mind muttered. After all, girls kissed in some manga and it did not seem too weird there. Yori decided to stop thinking at that point because it seemed that she losing her mind; she was going to blame all of the manga that she read.

"Come on, you're taking me shopping," Shego said out of the blue.

"I'm what?" Yori asked as if she did not understand. Her mind was still fogged over from the teasing moments ago.

"Shopping. Get up, let's go."

The ninja blinked and shook her head. "Wait…like, regular shopping?"

"Yeah."

"No stealing or anything?"

"Nope. You buy me something for winning with money, cash or credit," Shego remarked.

Yori was so stunned by the idea that it slipped her mind that she did not have much money. Most the money that came from her contact would be going back to Yamanouchi and she was given an allowance to live by. She was just overwhelmed by the thought of going shopping, like a regular girl. She was actually eager to do such a thing.

As a girl that practically grew up in a secret ninja school, she never really got to do regular girl things. She never really got to do regular things at all. The only reason that she even knew about manga came from the fact that she got into it when she was very young thanks to her father. Her life had been mostly training and lately it had been missions, sneaking around and doing things in the shadows, but nothing that most would consider normal for a teenager.

The duo went to go get cleaned up before anything else. Shego went to pick Yori up at her room when she was ready to go. She went in with the lights on that time and it was her first time seeing what was going on in the room. She noticed that Yori did not have anything at all in her room. It looked exactly the same from the day that the ninja showed up. It did not seem like a person even occupied the room.

"I've heard of Spartan, but this is ridiculous," the pale woman muttered to herself. There was not even something that resembled a bed.

She looked around for Yori, but found that the little ninja was not in there. It was then that she remembered the room did not have a bathroom in it like her room did. She waited in there for Yori, who showed up a few minutes later, completely dressed in street clothes.

They left the lair, not telling Drakken about it. Yori was going to say something, but she noticed that Shego did whatever she wanted without telling Drakken. The ninja guessed that he did not mind because he did not say anything about it. It was something else that she was not accustomed to, being able to come and go as she pleased. It was a delightful bit of freedom, she noted.

It was not until they got to the mall did Yori learn about Shego's expensive taste in everything and the fact that she could not afford anything that the plasma-wielder wanted. That did not bother Shego; she was in a pretty good mood from winning the sparring match. Yori was a bit disappointed in herself for not being able to keep her word. Shego noticed the defeated expression and the drop of the ninja's shoulders.

"Hey, cheer up," Shego said to the younger woman while throwing her arms around Yori's shoulders.

The ninja's heart sped up and a familiar blush rose to her cheeks as the arm settled around. She was not used to someone being so close to her without hitting her. Nor was she accustomed to the almost intimate maneuver; not many people were prone to touch her point blank for fear of losing their arms. Shego never seemed to think twice about being close to her whether they were fighting or not, though. It was not wholly unpleasant, she thought.

"You could always steal me something nice," Shego remarked, which did not help Yori's demeanor at all. Shego felt the shoulders in her grip fall more. "You don't like stealing, do you?" she inquired, even though that was kind of obvious.

Yori shook her head as an answer. She had no plans to talk about it, but her mouth started moving without her permission. She had never spoke on it to anyone aside for Master Sensei and she only talked about it once with him.

"I do not see the honor in taking something that isn't yours just because someone's paid you to do it. It's not theirs either. It seems like all around wrong behavior," Yori explained in a low tone, as if she was speaking a secret. Her eyes focused on the floor, never looking up to even see where she was going.

"Then why do you do it?" Shego asked curiously.

"Well, my master tells me that it is for the school's survival and honor. I owe my existence to the school and it is my honor to see to it that the school continues on. It is the way of the ninja to do as the client asks without questioning more than necessary anyway. We are here to serve and to get the job done…or so my master tells me," Yori answered. The reality of a ninja was rather different from the many stories that she had heard and read as a child. Still, she carried on and did not complain, although her heart clenched and twisted in her chest every time that she did something that she knew was wrong.

Shego nodded. "Sounds like you're being asked to compromise your own beliefs for the sake of a dollar, which isn't any way to live," she commented.

"What do you mean?" Yori asked, having never heard such talk before.

"You can't live your life for others, especially if they're making you do things you don't even like. It's your life and you should live it how you wanna."

"But, I owe the school for giving me this life."

"And if the school was worth anything, they wouldn't ask you to live this life in a way you hate."

Yori did not understand, which Shego noted, so she kept trying to explain. Yori continued to counter her argument. Despite the fact that Yori was saying what she believed, that it was her honor to keep the school going for giving her the life that she had, she seemed to get more and more depressed as she spoke. Shego was starting to get depressed just from Yori's dejected expression, manner, and tone.

"I got an idea, kid. We'll pick this conversation up later," Shego said. She would rather hold on to her good mood for the moment.

"But—" Yori tried to protest because she was actually enjoying arguing. She never got a chance to say any of these things and it felt good to get them out in the air. It also helped her realized just how little she actually believed in her own argument because she could feel her words weighing on her like an adult African elephant.

"It's cool, calm down, cherry blossom. We'll pick this up later. Right now, we're going to do something fun," Shego said with a devilish smile.

"Fun?" Yori echoed, her nervousness returning to her, not that it was ever far away thanks to Shego.

"Yeah, some fun."

The older woman tugged Yori off, going into a nearby, trendy store. Yori found out that by "fun" Shego meant shopping, but not in the way that they intended. Shego treated the Japanese woman to things, clothes and mostly things to decorate her barren room. Yori had never been on what could be considered a shopping spree and Shego could easily tell.

"Look, do you like this?" Shego inquired for what felt like the hundredth time and that was just for the one store that they were in. After barely a half-hour of shopping, she was pretty sure that she had asked that question at least a trillion times.

"Well…it is pretty," Yori commented, speaking about a shirt. It was just that it was expensive and she could not afford it.

"Fine, we're getting it," Shego said while yanking the shirt off the rack. She held it up to Yori and shook her head. They needed a smaller size, which she wasted no time in locating and grabbing.

"Wait, Shego-san…" Yori tried to protest, but Shego was not listening. Even though Yori was putting up quite the fuss over things, she was having a good time underneath the slight uneasy she felt from someone treating her to things. It was just all so new to the ninja and she was not sure what she was supposed to do.

Yori followed behind Shego as she started looking at other outfits. After buying some clothing, they went looking for another store. They passed by a store that caught Yori by surprise and she stopped without thinking. Shego was running her mouth, but noticed that she was talking to air. She halted to see what happened to her companion and saw Yori standing in awe in front of a store. She backed up to see what had Yori's attention.

"Oh, god, don't tell me you like—" Shego did not even get a chance to finish.

"Manga," Yori muttered. She was waiting for the clouds in the sky to part, shine a heavenly light on the store, and for the angels to start singing. She probably would have been drooling a puddle if she had just an ounce less of self-control.

"Fine. Come on," Shego said with a sigh, leading Yori into the store since she seemed to be stuck in place.

Yori stepped out of her shell a bit when they got into the store, which was covered in manga, anime videos, wall scrolls, posters, and all other sorts of things. Yori started asking for things, even though Shego already made it clear that Yori could have whatever she wanted. The store proved to be the cure for whatever ailed Yori as she left the store with two bags full of junk in Shego's opinion. The pale woman could not come right out and say that because Yori had the most adorable little smile on her face; she looked just like a happy kitten. Shego found herself enjoying the sight.

When the pair returned to the lair, they went to Yori's room. Shego looked around while Yori started taking out the things that they purchased. Shego then had a thought.

"Hey, small fry, don't unpack just yet," the pale woman said.

Yori was puzzled by that. "Huh?"

"Let's get you a better room first," Shego proposed.

"Better?"

Shego motioned for Yori to follow her and they walked down the hall to the elevator. They went upstairs and Shego presented Yori with a larger room with a better view of the ocean. Yori looked in awe of the room, never having such a large space all to herself.

"Shego-san…" Yori was speechless.

The green-skinned thief put her hand up to stop whatever the teen might even try to say. "Don't get all mushy on me, kid. We'll get you a bed and everything tomorrow."

Yori was still dumbstruck. Never had one person do so much for her, aside for Master Sensei. She really did not know how to react outwardly; her mind and body had their own opinions on how to respond to the kindness being thrown her way. Her mind decided that it liked the treatment being shown to her and her body just felt like liquid delight was flowing through it.

When Yori finally remembered how to talk, all she could say was, "Shego-san, you're doing way too much for me."

Shego waved it off, as if her actions were nothing. "Don't think anything of it. It's nothing," she said flippantly. It was just that she was in a good mood, she told herself. Although she was never in such a good mood that it made her spend her money like water on someone else. Even with Drakken whom she had known way longer than Yori, he only got loans and those came with interest.

"Um…Shego-san…will we continue our conversation from earlier like you said?" Yori asked coyly, glancing away as she spoke because she felt a bit of guilt. Shego had already done so much for her that day and yet she felt like she was asking for more, even though she did not deserve what she got in her opinion.

Shego sighed and scratched the top of her head a bit. She had been hoping that Yori forgot all about that little promise. The look in Yori's onyx eyes told her that the younger woman honestly and truly wanted to talk; hell, that she needed to talk. Shego found herself in a position that would have been close to alien to her before that day; she found that she could not turn the ninja down.

"Yeah, sure. We'll talk. Just not right now. Get comfortable in your new room, put up your posters—" Shego was cut off.

Yori corrected the older woman. "They're not posters. They're wall scrolls."

"Whatever. Just do all that little stuff. I'm right across the hall," Shego informed her.

Yori nodded and thanked Shego for everything. Shego waved it off as if the whole thing was nothing and then exited the room, leaving most of the bags that she was carrying on the floor. The ninja looked at the bags in her hands and smiled brightly, leaving the bare walls to witness her genuine happiness. What a great day, she thought as she started pulling out her wall scrolls and comic books.

* * *

Next time: Drakken finds that he doesn't like how close Shego is with Yori.


	4. Schooled

I don't own these characters. I don't own iPods either.

4: Schooled

Shego was lounging on her bed for lack of a better thing to do, sprawled out on top of the black spread. She had just cleaned herself up from spending the day out with Yori. She tried not to think about…she shuddered…how nice she had been being to Yori. There was something about that kid that was getting to her and she did not understand why. She hated to think that they bonded over a few sparring where the teen actually handed her her ass more often than not.

Maybe she just felt sorry for the girl, Shego tried to assure herself. It happened before, after all, she felt sorry for Drakken more often then not. What she felt for Yori was much different from what she felt for Drakken, though. So, she guessed that it was not that she felt sorry for Yori.

She mentally conceded that what she felt was something that made her open to Yori in a way that she never had been before. Maybe it was because the ninja was impressive, but also that she rather green when it came to life. Yori seemed to know how to kick butt rather well, but she did not know how to live and maybe that was some sort of curiosity, Shego considered…not that she was really curious of Yori.

There was something more to Yori than just the fact that she was a blank slate as far as doing any real living went. There was just something about her that Shego was taking to, something that was making her not only nice to the ninja in many different ways, like shopping and talking about her life, but also seriously trying to help her get out of a mindset that Shego did not think was healthy. It was almost like she cared, the thief thought. But, she reminded herself that she did not care about anyone. There was a part of that she refused to acknowledge at the moment that knew she was lying to herself about not caring.

"I must have lost my mind hanging out with Doctor D for all these years," the pale woman concluded. It was the only way that she could explain her behavior toward Yori; well, it was the only way that she was willing to entertain at the moment.

She hated to think that she actually liked having company that she could get along with and that had all of her senses. It was not that she had anything against sane people. She just liked to think of herself as a lone wolf type and she did not need to have anybody around her. Still, she invited Yori into her life in a way and she was pretty sure that the ninja was going to take her up on the offer. And she knew that she was not going to fight it now that the ball was rolling.

"Why?" Shego muttered, wondering why she was just going to let Yori into her life suddenly.

She never had anyone really in her life since she left her brothers. She did not count Drakken since she was with him because of money. He more invited her into his life and she came and went as she pleased. With Yori things were going to be different because it would be Yori that could come and go as she pleased in and out of Shego's life.

"Why?" the green-skinned woman asked the air again. It not like she needed someone to connect to, she mentally insisted. No, it was nothing like that, she promised herself. Maybe it was something like that, a part of her brain whispered and it was completely ignored.

* * *

Yori stood in her room, debating with herself if she should just go to bed or if she should go talk to Shego about the topic that they left hanging in the air when they were at the mall. Maybe she had pestered Shego enough for one day, she considered. After all, Shego had been very kind to her and she probably should just leave it at that, she told herself while looking around at her new room.

The room was bigger than the other room that she had been given the first day that she arrived at Drakken's lair. It had a view, which the other room was lacking. There was a bathroom and a large walk-in closet, which she could fill up thanks to all of the clothing that Shego brought her earlier that evening at the mall. Shego was also the one that gave her the new room.

"It's like she rewarded me for losing," Yori thought to herself with a bit of a laugh. It was actually more of a bribe to get her to stop being depressed.

She really did not want to trouble Shego anymore. She knew that the pale woman had little patience and it was quite possible that she had gone through all of it that Shego had for her. She did not want to press her luck and then end up pushing the older woman away now that she felt like they were connecting in some way.

Yori had liked talking about things and getting them off her chest. It was not something that she was accustomed to doing and she found it uplifting. It left like physical weight was being lifted off of her as she discussed things with Shego. She liked that Shego listened to her and countered her with things that she had never heard before. Shego was treating her in a way that no one ever had, including the one person in her life that treated her like a human being rather than a tool, Ron Stoppable.

Ever since her parents died, Yori was used to being a thing to people. Even as a ninja, she knew that she was just a tool for someone to use if they could afford her services. Ron came along and treated her more like a friend once he got to know her. She liked to think that he was her very first friend, that he taught her what friendship was. Still, the notion of his friendship seemed different than what she was experiencing with Shego. Yori decided to mentally compare the two since Ron was now on her mind.

Ron treated her like a human and he was nice to her, more so than Shego, Yori would say. After all, he did not seem to get enjoyment out of making her uneasy like the green-skinned woman did. He did not tease her with sexual innuendo like Shego did. He did not make her uncomfortable at all like Shego did either, but then again, she was starting to think that it was a good kind of uncomfortable, which was a puzzle in and of itself. Ron did not offer up serious conversation like Shego did, which Yori seemed to need and she did recognize that. She never figured out so much weighed on her until she started debating with the plasma-wielder earlier in the mall.

The ninja never considered how much her life might bother her until she started discussing things with Shego. Before the pale woman, she had been able to lie to herself and to convince herself that even if she was doing the wrong thing, she was still upholding her honor by upholding the integrity of her school. Now that she talked it over though, there were some kinks appearing in her armor and she just wanted to chat about it some more. Maybe she could be able to soothe and calm the rustling in her soul that she stirred up from thinking about her life.

"I think…I think I'll go see if she still wants to talk," Yori decided.

The ninja changed into her pajamas before going to see Shego. The pajamas were just plain cream-colored thin cotton pants and a tank-top. She liked wearing light colors when she could because on missions she always had to wear dark clothing; it was just nice for a change, even if it was a small change. She doubted that most people would understand, but her casual clothing was one of the few things that she had a say in as far as her life went. She then went across the hall to Shego's room. She knocked lightly, almost shyly, on the door.

"Yeah, come on in, cherry blossom," Shego called, expecting Yori. Besides, between the three people in the lair, she knew that only Yori would bother with knocking.

"Shego-san, my name is Yori," the ninja sighed as she came into the room, shaking her head. Despite the fact that she corrected the thief, she was doing her nickname justice because of the pink tint to her cheeks. There was also something underneath her that liked having a somewhat harmless nickname.

The emerald-eyed female waved the teen off; she was standing by her closet, just wasting time going through her clothing. She knew what the girl's name was by now, of course; hell, she caught it the first time Yori said it. Yori sighed, knowing that the wave meant the nicknames were going to continue on. Well, maybe she would stop blushing as time went by and Shego continued using them.

Yori looked around the room and was not surprised by the colors covering the place. Shego's had a green carpet down with all black furniture. There was a vanity against the wall, a television opposite the bed, and nightstand next to the bed. On the nightstand was Shego's iPod and a laptop computer. There was a classical painting on the wall; it was a rare Rembrandt that Shego stole a long time ago and could not bear to part with. That was actually the most decadent thing in the room, which surprised Yori considering how Shego acted at the mall.

"You can sit on the bed if you want. I don't have much in the way of chairs since I'm the only one in here most of the time," Shego explained as she flopped down on her bed, crumpling the black spread that was on it.

Yori nodded, but hesitant a bit. Shego yanked the teen down to her since she seemed so indecisive about things. The ninja bounced as she hit the mattress, which did not make a sound from the added weight. Shego doubted that she could have felt the impact of Yori falling on the bed if she was not so close to the lightweight. The ninja landed on Shego after she bounced.

Shego went stiff for a moment, which did not go by Yori. She wondered why the older woman tensed and then she noticed that her hand on something squishy. The ninja made a puzzled face while wondering what the soft cushion was that her hand landed on. She glanced down and a blush rose from the base of her neck to the roots of her hair. She squeaked like a surprised mouse and quickly pulled away from the thief. Yori retreated to the edge of the bed, looking away from embarrassment.

"I'm sorry!" the ninja eek-ed.

Shego chuckled, finding it hard to be upset with Yori when she had that sheepish look on her face. "Don't be sorry. It wasn't wholly unpleasant on my end, after all. If you wanted to cop a feel, all you have to do was ask," she remarked with a smirk.

The Japanese teen made a high-pitched noise and she flushed a deeper red; she looked like she was a tomato. Shego could not help laughing more, especially when it looked like Yori was wishing that she could just disappear; the ninja was considering doing that after making such an ass of herself and groping Shego. Yori was too much, the plasma-wielder thought.

"So, where were we?" Shego inquired, knowing why Yori was there.

The ninja knew that the joke at her expense was over. She was thankful for that, hoping that her blush would finally abandon her. It slowly worked its way from her face and her heart rate calmed down. She had not even realized that her heart sped up until now. She could not figure out why that was and decided against dwelling on it. Once she felt absolutely normal, she felt safe in looking at Shego.

Shego looked somewhat serious as she went to lean back on the headboard of her bed. She was trying to look indifferent more for herself than Yori because she wanted to believe that she did not care. Something inside of her was not allowing her usual nonchalant attitude to take over, as if reminding her that not only was Yori not Drakken, but that there was more to her feelings toward the ninja than she was willing to acknowledge.

"I was arguing that my honor is the school's honor," Yori pointed out as she moved away from the edge of the bed. She set herself up, sitting her with her legs folded underneath her.

Shego scoffed and laughed at the same time. "Right, that nonsense. Look, kid, if your school held any love for you at all, they wouldn't ask you to compromise who you are just to bring in the money."

"Well, what about you? You do these things for money. Do you believe in them?" the teen inquired in a curious tone. She could not see how someone could believe and be fine with taking things that did not belong to her, especially without any sort of justification.

Shego shrugged, her usual nature finally coming out and allowing her to be a little relaxed about things. "I believe in a good time. I'm out for a good time. Life is here to be enjoyed. I'm enjoying it. You, on the other hand, are being burdened by it and that's no way to live. That's not even living."

"But, if I were to turn my back on my school, what kind of person would that make me? My master took me in, clothed me, fed me, and taught me all that I know. I owe him," Yori argued wholeheartedly, her expression making it quite clear that she truly believed in that.

"And for him to ask this of you, to ask you to compromise yourself, makes him an asshole. He's brainwashed you, making you think you owe him something when you don't owe him a damn thing. He's the one that chose to do all those things for you. You didn't make him do it and you didn't know that you'd be paying him back for the essentials of life. It's what we professional people call bullshit," Shego said rather bluntly.

Shego was actually pained to hear Yori talk. The ninja was brainwashed in her opinion and she really hated to see people getting mind-fucked. People should be allowed to make up their own minds and do what they wanted, whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing. Yori was being bullied into doing the wrong thing rather than choosing it and it was not something that Shego was in favor of. She had gone through that with her older brother before she had ever truly been mind-controlled by some piece of technology through Drakken.

Shego knew about psychological mind-control and technological mind-control. Psychological was worse in her opinion because it did not just go away when the chip was removed. It took work to get away from psychological mind-control and she was not even sure if she had totally gotten over the hold her brother used to have on her. At least Yori had taken the first step, even if it was by accident, she had gotten away from the person messing with her mind. In Shego's opinion, distance was the first step in breaking the chain. Realization would soon come, especially if she continued to work with Yori; or so she believed.

Was that it, Shego wondered? Did she seem some of herself in Yori? Was that why she was acting the way that she was? At the moment, it did not even matter to her. She just needed to help Yori realize that her life was her own and she did not owe it to anyone, no matter what.

"Bullshit?" Yori echoed in a confused tone. Her face scrunched up a bit because she had never heard the word; at least, she never heard it in English.

Shego giggled a bit; yes, she actually giggled. "It's cute when you say it. I gotta make a note to get you to swear more often."

"How can you say these things, though? I mean, this man—" Yori started, but the older woman cut in.

"Yeah, I know, brought you up and put you down, whatever. Like I said, if he really cared about you, he wouldn't be asking you to do things you don't like. For him to do this, it means he's just using you and he has been since you were a kid. He found a stray puppy and knew that he could raise an attack dog that wouldn't bite the hand that feeds it," Shego argued vehemently.

"He doesn't think I'm a dog," the ninja practically gasped. It sounded so bad when Shego put that way, she thought.

"That's what he thinks you are. You're just something for him to use. Something that he doesn't even care about since he never takes your feelings into consideration by asking you to do something that you don't want, or might not know if you want to do," the pale woman continued on.

"Shego-san, it's not like that," Yori countered weakly.

"It is like that. I know assholes like this. I'm related to one for crying out loud," Shego stated with much more energy than she meant to put forth. It was one thing to think that she cared, but to practically show it was another matter. Maybe she never realized how much the subject bothered her.

Most people would be surprised to see the effort that Shego was putting forth to get through to Yori. It was just that Shego had developed a like for the ninja and there was her deep hatred of messing with minds, especially since she now realized how much she related to the ninja. She would sit there and argue all night if necessary to make a dent in Yori's head, but after a while, she got a little annoyed with it because Yori kept using the same argument. It was like Yori was not listening to anything that she said, although she had a feeling that the teen was taking in her words just like she was taking something away from arguing her point.

"You know what, cherry blossom?" Shego said in a tone that did not fit the argument.

Yori made a puzzled face from the new, almost bored tone that Shego was using. "What?" the ninja asked curiously.

"This."

Shego slapped Yori in the face with a pillow. The ninja was taken by surprise and fell to the side on the bed. As Yori was getting up, Shego smacked her again with the pillow. Yori figured out that the discussion was over for the night.

"What're you doing?" Yori asked, trying not to laugh as Shego pummeled her with the downy soft weapon.

"I'm beating some sense into you, what does it look like?" Shego replied with a laugh.

The ninja crawled around the bed to grab her own weapon and then it was on. The pair went back and forth knocking each other around with the pillows. The odd sound of gleeful laughter filled the room, but no one was around to hear it.

--(Next Morning)

"Shego!" Drakken called as he brazenly walked into her bedroom. He hardly made it two steps in before he saw quite the curious sight, which was Yori sleeping in Shego's bed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Doctor D. What've I told you about just coming in here without knocking?" Shego inquired as she came out of the bathroom, robe around her body and towel around her head. She marched right over to him.

"Shego, what's going on?" the cerulean scientist inquired in a puzzled tone. His eyes were locked on the sleeping ninja, even as Shego was turning him around to get him out of her room.

"Ah, we had a little slumber party. Turns out pillow fights are her weakness," Shego remarked with a chuckle while ushering her boss out of the room.

Drakken was about to say something else, but Shego shut the door in his face. She turned around and shook her head at the sight of Yori, knocked out on the bed. She guessed that between the debate and the pillow fight last night, Yori was done. The teen had fallen asleep on her bed last night during a lull in the pillow fight when they were supposed to watch a movie. Shego left her there because she knew that Yori did not have a bed anyway.

Shego went to get dressed before waking the ninja up. Yori shot up like a foghorn was blown when all Shego did was shake her; Yori had been so knocked out that tapping her had done nothing, but cause her to turn over. The teen appeared to be utterly stunned and disorientated as she sat up, looking around to figure out where she was. She did not recall falling asleep and worst yet was that she had slept so hard. She was pretty drained thanks to last night.

"Shego-san, what happened?" Yori asked while rubbing her forehead in confusion.

"Time to get up, cherry blossom," Shego replied while trying to assure herself that Yori was not cute when she woke up. Her mind was not buying it.

"Get up? What time is it?" the ninja asked and then she yawned, making sure to cover her mouth to mind her manners.

"Ten-thirty," the pale woman answered nonchalantly.

Yori's eyes went wide. "Ten-thirty? I've never slept so long in my life. Wait, why am I in your room?"

"You fell asleep in my bed, leaving me to watch the movie by myself."

Yori's face twitched a bit as she remembered that they were supposed to watch a movie. She was now disappointed that she had fallen asleep because she did not get to watch movies every often. She was also a bit disappointed because she had left Shego when she had agreed to watch the movie with her. The Japanese woman felt like she had broken her word because she fell asleep.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the ninja apologized sincerely.

"It's cool. So, come on, get up. We'll get some breakfast, do a little sparring, and then go see about getting you a bed of your own," Shego proposed.

"Shego-san…"

"Talking ain't moving nothing but your lips and that's not getting us closer to pancakes," the pale woman remarked.

"Pancakes?" Yori echoed, her face suddenly interested.

"Yeah, we're going out for pancakes. So, come on."

Yori nodded, in total agreement with that plan it seemed. She guessed that she had not used up all of Shego's patience yet, which surprised her considering their debate last night. She was quite pleased to know that she was still on Shego's good side because she was enjoying being around the pale woman. The ninja hopped out of the bed and trotted across the hall to her room. She went to throw on her own street clothes.

Shego watched the younger woman leave. She was going to consider her behavior toward Yori again, but she decided to just let it go. What did it matter? She was having a good time hanging out with the ninja and that was what life was all about.

"Life is here to be enjoyed," Shego reminded herself as she went to go pick up Yori for them to go have breakfast, and probably do a lot more with their day afterwards. The pair were headed out when they ran into Drakken.

"Where are you two going?" the scientist inquired with a curious expression on his face.

"Out to breakfast," Shego answered in a flippant tone, sort of implying that it was none of his business.

"We're going to have pancakes," Yori informed him with a small smile. The expression was more because she was going to be out with Shego than because of what they were about to do.

"I like pancakes," Drakken muttered, pouting a bit. He seemed to forget that he wanted to talk to Shego earlier now that his two employees were talking about going out for pancakes without him.

"Yeah, so, unless you need us for something, and even if you do, keep it to yourself until we get back," Shego replied.

Drakken was at a lost, not sure what to make of things. He could not recall ever seeing Shego hang out with someone like she seemed to be doing right now. It seemed bizarre to him, plus he was a bit hurt that they had not invited him for breakfast after he volunteered the information that he liked pancakes. Why were they not inviting him after he told them right out that he liked pancakes?

While the sky-colored scientist stood there dumbfounded, Shego grabbed Yori and they continued on their way. Drakken's expression fell, his jaw pretty much on the floor, as he was left looking at their backs. He looked like someone kicked Commodore Puddles right in front of his face; his eyebrows curled upward and his bottom lip trembled slightly, as if he was going to burst into tears at any second.

"I like pancakes…" he mumbled again, sounding just as crushed as he looked.

What in the world was going on? Shego was acting all buddy-buddy with the new kid, he noticed. She had never been so friendly with the other henchmen. She was never so friendly to him. After all, she never took him out for pancakes.

And then there was the fact that Yori was sleeping in Shego's bed. Drakken was not sure what to make of that, but decided to believe Shego's story of a slumber party because he did not have anything else to go by. Still, the point was that Shego was getting really close to Yori and she was paying Yori more attention than she was paying him. He did not like that.

What if Shego started hanging out with Yori all the time? Then, she probably would not go out to do karaoke with him or anything like that. He did not want things to come to that. He was starting to miss when it was just him, Shego, and the lazy henchmen. He did not have to worry about Shego doing anything them, except for maybe her beating up the henchmen when they did something that she did not like. Back then, he could talk to Shego whenever he wanted and did not have to worry about her running off with another employee like she was doing now. He desired things to go back to how they used to be.

The scientist wanted to brag to Shego that he was moving along quickly with his weather machine that was going to make it rain his mind-control shampoo. Part of the fun of building things was boasting to Shego along the way. How was he supposed to do his usual bragging if Shego was out with Yori? He guessed that he was going to have to get them when they came back in, which took a few hours.

"Shego," Drakken said, trotting up to the two ladies as they came in.

"Not now, Doctor D. Gotta go work off the breakfast," Shego commented, although she supposed that they had already worked off breakfast. Well, there was always the late lunch that they had that they could work off.

"But—" he tried to protest, but his sidekick interjected.

"Not now," she repeated.

Shego and Yori continued on walking and headed right for the gym. Drakken was left in their wake and he whimpered sorrowfully. His expression and the noise failed to attract any attention. That ninja girl was stealing Shego away from him.

Drakken frowned, believing that he was losing Shego to Yori. Who was he supposed to talk to and brag to if Shego was not around, especially since all of his other henchmen were gone? Shego was supposed to be there for him and just him. He then got an idea, which he decided to share with Shego.

The scientist caught his green-skinned sidekick as she and Yori were coming out of the gym late that evening. He stopped Shego, who told Yori to go ahead without her since they were only heading to their rooms to take showers. He scowled as the ninja walked off. Shego then turned her attention Drakken while wiping sweat from the side of her head.

"What's up, Doctor D?" Shego inquired, breathing somewhat hard because of the intense workout that she had just gone through.

"I'm starting to think that hiring the ninja girl wasn't the right thing to do," Drakken mused aloud.

"What do you mean? She pulled her weight on the one job you gave her," Shego pointed out. She did not think that there was much for him to judge hiring Yori being a "mistake." They had done on one job over two weeks ago and that had gone fine, so if anything, he should be all right with Yori.

"I'm sure you could've done that one on your own."

Shego shrugged. She could have done it on her own, but that was neither here nor there to her. "You can't fire the kid for not working out when you haven't given her anything to do to see if she will work out," she commented.

"I don't think we need more than one of you. I mean, the henchmen did…stuff," he argued.

"The henchmen picked their noses and dug up their butts, if you want to call that stuff feel free. Don't compare their bull-crap to her, though. She could wipe the floor with all of your so-called henchmen if they were still here," Shego countered heatedly. She did not notice that she was starting to get worked up since Drakken was implying that he was letting Yori go.

"Well, I still don't think it's necessary to have someone just like you around," he commented.

"She's not just like me and you can't say it's not necessary to have her around until she's proven that. You kept your stupid hench-goons on for years when all that did was sit around getting fatter. So, just give the kid a chance."

"I think I'm going to cancel the contract and send her back."

That idea did not sit well with the emerald-eyed thief. He would be sending Yori back to that school that was using her and messing with her mind. The kid did not deserve that, in her opinion. Yori needed to stay away from Yamanouchi for as long as possible and to realize that her life was her to live as she desired. She would not stand for Yori going back and being manipulated anymore.

Besides, Shego liked having Yori around so far. She had someone to tease in a different way than Drakken, someone to hang out with doing things that she liked to do, and someone that she could surprisingly talk to. She was not about to let Drakken blow that for her or cost Yori the little bit of freedom that she now had thanks to her contract.

Shego snarled and grabbed Drakken by the collar within a split second of him informing her that he was going to send Yori back. She pushed him against the wall, scaring the crap out of him. She held up her other hand in a flexed position and it was covered in a familiar glow. He began trembling because he could see from the fierce look in her eye that she was being completely serious in her treatment of him.

"Listen carefully, you're not firing Yori. She's sticking around and you're going to get used to her, got it?" she demanded with a deep scowl, slamming his back against the wall.

"Yes'm," Drakken squeaked, his eyes wide and his mouth in a full pout, his bottom lip sticking out and shaking. He looked like a child that feared he was about to get a spanking and he was hoping that his expression would gain him some sympathy to avoid his punishment.

Shego banged his back on the wall once more just for good measure. She then walked off while he slid to the floor. He was ready to cry; that was how scared he was. He was happy that he was able to control his bladder after that encounter. He guessed that he was going to have to get used to having Yori around or at least have a good reason to fire her. With that in mind, he decided that he was going to join the duo on the next caper that he sent them on.

He went back to building his weather machine while Shego and Yori continued on hanging out. He got around to mostly finishing the machine before he had to send his two employees out again for a major necessity to his machine. He shocked them when he told them that he was going along.

"Is that safe?" Yori asked Shego.

"Ah, we won't be able to stop him if that's what he wants to do. It's all right. We'll keep an eye on him and keep him out of trouble. What're we going after, anyway?" Shego inquired, turning her attention to Drakken.

"Uh…don't worry about it. I'll get it when we get in," the blue-skinned male replied.

"What the hell? Just tell us in case we see it," Shego argued.

"No, no, no. I'll get it," Drakken insisted.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Yori asked.

"Good idea? No. But, nothing with him ever is," Shego quipped with a shrug. "Doctor D, just tell us what the hell the thing is and we'll go get it."

"No! I wanna come!" Drakken replied, stomping his foot and making tight fists with his tiny hands.

"And I wanna punch you in the mouth right now, but apparently one of us has to be the adult here," Shego remarked. "I'm starting think I might volunteer Yori for that job just for the excuse to whack you one."

"I'm coming and that's that," Drakken insisted. He got his way by not telling them what they needed to steal.

The trio marched out to the hovercraft and were on their way; well they tried to be on their way. Shego seat in the pilot seat and Yori took the spot next to her, which prompted another tantrum from Drakken. Just to shut him up, the ninja went to sit in the back. They took off into the dark after that.

Shego did not looked too pleased as she flew the craft, even though she was used to dragging Drakken along for jobs. It was just that she would rather her and Yori get in and get out since they were the professionals. There was also the fact that Drakken was acting like a brat.

Yori was not sure what to make of Drakken coming along, but she hoped that he did not ruin things for them and he had better not get them caught. It seemed like something that he would do since he was acting like a five-year-old. Yori figured that Shego was with her from the sour expression on the older woman's face.

The break-in was smooth since Yori and Shego agreed on how to go in. They had to go with an easy and unguarded route since Drakken was with them. They entered the lab and the scientist began looking through everything on the shelves. Everything was going well until they all heard a familiar voice.

"Hold it right there," Kim Possible told the trio.

"Yeah, what she said," Ron concurred, stick in an open window that his pants were snagged on.

"Oh, no," Yori muttered.

* * *

Next time: How does Yori get out of this mess?


	5. What is Fate’s deal?

I don't own these characters.

5: What is Fate's deal?

"Kim Possible?" Drakken hollered in disbelief as the redheaded hero showed up to ruin his plans yet again.

"Why do you say that like you're surprised that she's here?" Shego inquired in an irked tone. He should know by now that the little busy-body showing up was inevitable. It was part of the fun of the job.

Drakken and his two minions were in lab because Drakken needed something for his new weather machine that he was not disclosing to his two trained thieves. Like what happened on most capers, Kim and Ron showed up to stop them halfway through the job. Shego was ready to throw down, but she noticed that Yori was not. Yori's stance seemed to indicate that she was more ready to flee the scene or shrink out of existence.

Shego wondered why the Japanese woman seemed almost frightened of what was happening. Yori was a well-trained ninja with combat skills that would probably make some armies flee in terror. So, she should not be scared, in Shego's opinion. She figured that Yori just needed a push in the right direction because the ninja did seem to worry about being caught, which the pale woman thought might have been the cause of Yori's sudden fear. She figured as soon as she got Yori into the flow of things, then the ninja would be all right.

"Kid, you get the buffoon. I've got Kimmie," Shego declared with a smirk.

Yori gulped since Shego wanted her to go after Ron. She was glad that she was wearing her black mask so that Ron and Kim could not tell it was her, but there was no way that she would be able to fight Ron. She was happy that he was currently caught on the windowsill by his pants, so she did not have to attempt to go at him. But, she doubted that he was going to be stuck there forever. She hoped that their employer hurried up and got what he needed before Ron figured out that his belt loop was caught in between loose bits in the window.

"What, you guys got some new lowlife working with you?" Kim asked Shego while dodging a flaming claw strike. She was referring to the person clad in all black, which happened to be Yori.

"The kid would mop the floor with you," Shego countered proudly while blocking a punch from the hero. She moved in, trying for another claw move.

"Oh, you mean like I always do with you?" the redhead remarked as she caught Shego by the arm and used her forward momentum to fling her across lab.

The plasma-wielder slid across the marble countertop in the room, clearing it of a few vials. She hit the floor with a yelp, flailing her arms as she went down. Her ninja partner gasped, forgetting about how tough the pale woman was.

"Shego-san," Yori accidentally called out, worried that the pale woman was hurt. She knew from sparring with Shego that it would take a lot more than one throw to injure the older female, but still, she found herself being concerned.

"I'm fine, get the buffoon," Shego replied as she climbed to her feet and pointed at the blonde sidekick. She then dashed back at Kim with a smirk on her face and her hands lit up.

"That voice sounded familiar," Ron thought, referring to the one that just cried out for Shego. He was still stuck in the window; damn baggy pants, he thought.

"Ron, stop Drakken!" Kim called while continuing to tangle with Shego. She noticed that Drakken was going through items on the shelves like nothing was wrong.

The blue scientist was not really concerned over things. He figured that Shego would handle Kim, like always. He did not even think about Ron, as usual. He casually went through everything stacked on the shelves around the room like nothing was wrong. He occasionally mumbled to himself when something was not what he was searching for.

Yori remained cemented in place while watching Shego take on Kim, not sure who she wanted to come out on top. The ninja was seriously torn to the point where her left arm was trembling from indecision. Part of her wanted to jump in and help Kim, but then another part of her wanted to jump in and help Shego. Because of her confusion and hesitating, she failed to pay attention to what was going on with Ron, who she just hoped stayed stuck in the window until they could escape.

The blonde sidekick managed to free himself and he ended up falling into Yori as he freed his pants from the sill. For a split second, he was proud that he had not lost his pants, which was happening with less frequency, but it did still happen. His moment was very short-lived, though. The ninja went into action on instinct and kicked Ron away from her. When she realized what she did, she panicked and threw her hands up in worry, going into a surrender position. Ron fell back against Drakken.

"Stoppable-san," Yori muttered and she took a step toward Ron to check on him, wanting to make sure she had not injured her first real friend.

Drakken turned around to push Ron away from him, which worked out since the blonde was already off balance. The young man was fling back the way that he came, right into an approaching Yori. They collided and true to Ron's usual fashion, he did something significant by accident. His hand went out and he yanked at Yori's mask. Her covering fell to the ground with Ron.

"What the?" Ron muttered as he looked in his hand to see the cloth that he was holding. Naturally, he turned his eyes upward to see what he uncovered.

"Ron-san, don't look!" Yori implored as she tried to hide her face in her hands. Oh, how she wished that she could just die at that very moment to not have to suffer the humiliation of Ron knowing what she did.

"Ron-san?" Kim and Shego echoed in puzzled tones. The words brought a halt to their rumble for a moment and they turned to look at Yori.

"Yori?" Ron asked as he climbed to his feet. He looked utterly bewildered. "What're you doing here?" he inquired, his eyebrow turned up and his eyes wide.

"I…um…" the ninja stammered, not knowing what to say. She turned her head away, hoping that he would somehow think that he was mistaken and it was not her.

Ron looked around for a moment as his brain started spinning. His mind was not able to take in what was going on completely anymore because of what he thought was going on. He had to take in the scene again and recall what he saw when they arrived. When his mind pieced everything back together, he could hardly believe the answer that he got, but his mouth blurted it out anyway due to the fact that he was incredulous.

"You're working for Drakken now?" he demanded to know in a tone that was mixed with bemusement and fury.

"I…it…I…um…" Yori could not think on how to begin explaining what was going on. She looked away again, turning her head to the ground now, her shame so thick that it seemed to weigh her entire face down. It was one thing to be doing something that she thought was wrong, but to be caught in the act by her friends and to have them looking to stop what she was doing was too much. Ron's reaction was not helping.

"How could you do this to us?" Ron inquired heatedly, pain making his voice raw. His face twisted violently into several expressions from pure rage to utterly shattered. His heart sank into his stomach, which in turn followed most his organs to his knees. He felt so betrayed seeing the ninja there. It did not help matters that she had kicked him in the first place.

"I…the contract…I…" she rambled in a voice that was so mumbled and low that it did not even sound like she was speaking English. She still had her hands over her face, now just hiding from the world and her ragged disgrace. Behind her hands, her eyes were closed tight as if that would help her believe that she was not there right now and that Ron was not there right now. Her mouth was turned down in a pout while quivering, as if she was bordering on tears. The muscles of her entire body trembled under Ron's intense gaze that she could feel tearing into her murderous heat. It was amazing that she was able to remain on her feet.

"How could you sink this low? I mean, we're you're friends and here you are working for Drakken? Stealing junk? What're you looking to rule the world right with him?" Ron demanded to know, getting in Yori's face over it.

Yori seemed to shrink back as Ron screamed at her. He was on auto-pilot as far as his reaction was going because he was so upset. His mind reeling, everything in his brain going a mile-a-minute. He just could not believe what he was seeing. The girl that was so obsessed with honor and always wanted to do the right thing was not only stealing, but also hanging out with Shego and Drakken was too much for him. She might as well have ripped out all of his organs and set them on fire right in front of his face from the way that he felt. She kind of knew that, which only made her feel worse; she wished that she could just die right now.

While the two friends were going through their "argument;" it was bit hard to be an argument considering how tongue-tied Yori was. Drakken was not even paying them any mind. Kim and Shego were looking on as if they were watching a car wreck on the highway. They did not know what to do or how to jump in.

Now, Kim was outraged to see Yori there, but nowhere near as much as Ron if their expressions told the tales. Kim looked baffled, almost like she did not even believe that was Yori standing there. It just seemed too fantastic, even for her. After all, what the hell would someone like Yori be doing with someone like Drakken?

"I…I was hired to do this. It is my mission…" Yori muttered in a sorrowful tone, her hands finally dropping from her face. It took more energy than she had left to hold her hands up and try to protect some small piece of her rapidly fleeing dignity.

"It's your mission to be a liar? To fight your friends? To steal stuff from people?" the blonde hollered, throwing his hands out to the side as he spoke. How could she do this, his eyes demanded to know while his anger just continued to build. He had never felt like he did right now in his entire life. There were so many emotions, and none of them were good. It felt like he just had the weight of the world put on his shoulders and he just could not handle it.

"I…" Yori felt like she was ready to break down, drop to her knees, and bawl like an injured baby right then and there. He was so angry with her that she could feel it radiating off of him, poisoning her soul, slowly killing her.

"Leave her alone, rat-boy!" Shego ordered without thinking. She just could not take the heartbroken expression cracking Yori's face, breaking down her body. She turned away from Kim, not that the hero was paying her any mind anymore. She was now looking to face off with Ron if he was going to keep on hurting her little ninja as he was.

"Stay out of it!" Ron countered in a heated tone, which would have shocked Shego if she was not so emotional right now right along with him. Yori and Kim were surprised by his tone, having never heard it before. Yori just felt more ashamed of herself because Ron was acting so unlike himself thanks to her.

Shego snarled and ignited her hands higher than usual, looking to take on Ron. The blonde was too furious to think about being afraid of the threatening posture that Shego had taken. If she wanted to tango, then he was up for it. As long as he could get back to figuring out what the hell was wrong with Yori and why she was with the bad guys.

"Hold on, Shego," Kim said, finally coming out of her own incredulous stupor. She was not going to let the pale woman harm her best friend/boyfriend, as it seemed Shego was quite ready to do. Kim resumed her fighting stance.

"I've got it!" Drakken declared with a grin, pulling a small container of liquid from the shelf he was rummage at.

Shego huffed, knowing that Drakken was ready to get out of there now. From the look on Yori's face, Shego figured that it would be best to get out of there. She decided to act quickly.

Shego threw a plasma blast, which was actually much stronger than usual. Luckily for Ron, he dodged it. Kim was about to jump into the act since Shego was going after her best friend, but the pale woman was still a step ahead. She grabbed Yori and went into a pouch on the ninja's belt. She retrieved a small ball and tossed it to the ground. The room was covered in smoke. When it all cleared, the bad guys were gone.

Kim sucked her teeth as the smoke began to clear away from the scene of the crime. "They got away," she mumbled for lack of a better thing to say thanks to all of the weirdness that just happened.

"Yori!" Ron screamed to the ceiling, venting his anger. As soon as he was done yelling, his shoulders and head dropped in defeat.

"It's okay, Ron," Kim tried to assure him, putting her arm around him with the hope of comforting him.

"How could she do this to us?" he asked in a low, pitiful tone. They were supposed to be friends, he thought. Hell, they practically shared a sister and yet she had turned on _him_. He felt like Yori betrayed him personally, despite the fact that he had used the word "us."

"I don't know, Ron. I don't know," the redhead replied. She was just as lost as he was. She thought that Yori was their friend. Sure, they did not see each other all that often, but when they did see each other, everything seemed okay between them. She did not understand why Yori would turn against them and if she did not understand, she knew that Ron was utterly and completely lost.

* * *

Yori was in a total catatonic state. She did not know that Shego pulled her out of the lab and she was unaware that she was sitting in the backseat of the hovercraft. It did not register to her mind that anything was going on, not the wind slapping her in the face or whipping her hair in her eyes. She did not know where she was or who she was with. Part of her subconscious hoped that she was dead.

"I told you that girl isn't working out," Drakken huffed, folding his arms across his chest as if he gained a victory because Yori was frozen in place.

"Shut up," Shego replied, not in the mood to hear his mouth. She felt sludge was building in her system thanks to the exchange in the lab. She was not sure why, but Yori's distressed state was affecting her greatly. She felt almost ready to just fly the hovercraft to Stoppable's house and force him to apologize to Yori from the bottom of his heart to bring the ninja out of her current condition.

"She didn't do anything and it seems that she knows Kim Possible," he pointed out.

"Shut up," Shego repeated with more attitude than before.

"When we get back to the lair, I'm letting her go," Drakken decided, which he wanted to do anyway. He was glad to have an excuse for it.

Shego snarled and took her eyes off the sky to give Drakken her undivided attention for the moment. "Listen carefully," she started in a dangerously low tone. "You're not firing Yori. And if you ever entertain that idea again, I'll do some very unpleasant things to you," she promised, holding up a flexed, clawed hand that seemed more threatening without the plasma.

Shego was not about to let Drakken send Yori back to her school, especially not when she was so overwrought. There was no telling what the people at her school would be able to do to her while she was so down in the dumps. She did not even want to think about Yori going back to that damned school.

Besides, the pale thief liked having Yori around and she was going to keep the ninja around because of that. She was not interested in hearing anything from Drakken or anyone else bad about the ninja, especially not now. Her major concern was to get Yori back to her normal self.

Drakken moved to the far side of the hovercraft because of Shego's threatening posture. He gulped, hoping that Shego did not follow him to his side of the vehicle. He then nodded to show that he understood and he would not be firing Yori anytime soon.

"Okay, no need to get snippy," the cerulean-skinned scientist grumbled, hoping to get things back to normal.

The rest of the ride was quiet; it was tense, but quiet nonetheless. Yori came out of her trance once they landed at the lair. She dragged her feet as she walked to her room. Her shoulders were slumped, her head hanging low, and her body looked like there was the weight of the world bearing down on her. She looked totally drained and beaten down, as if she had just lost a gang fight.

Shego could not stand the sight of the defeated ninja. It made her feel emotions that she had not felt in a long time, empathy being one of them, and she did not know why that was. She understood that Yori knew Kim and Ron and it was obvious that they thought Yori betrayed them. They did not understand what Yori was doing, how she was already hurting, and their reaction could not have helped. Shego knew how that was to a degree from a past that she would rather not think about.

There was also an urge in Shego that she had not felt in a long time. She wanted to comfort Yori. Now, every now and then, she got the urge to stroke Drakken's ego when he got down in the dumps, but what she was feeling right now was much greater than that. It sort of reminded her of when she was younger and her baby brothers used to run to her when they had nightmares. She could not resist the urge.

Instead of going off with Drakken to find out what the hell they just stole, Shego followed Yori. She trotted after the younger woman, but Yori made it to her room first. Shego would have just barged in, but she found the door locked. She understood that meant Yori wanted space, but she had no problem in letting the teen know that she was there for her. She knocked to get Yori's attention and then just talked to the door.

"Cherry blossom, if you need me, you know I'm across the hall," Shego pointed out quietly. She stood there for a second to see if the ninja was going to let her in. The door did not open, which Shego did not take offense to. Sometimes, people just needed space and she understood that.

Yori did hear Shego at her door. She was too busy crying to think about letting Shego in, though. She was certain that she had just had the worst day of her life, which said a lot considering how crappy her younger life was. Her first true friend thought that she betrayed him and believed that she was willing on the wrong side, which she sort of was. She could not even explain because she kind of agreed with him; she was also too internally injured to explain herself. She knew that what she was doing was wrong, but she also needed to uphold the honor of her school. Her chest hurt painfully and she felt so torn.

The ninja wept long and hard into her pillow. It was the first time in a very long time that she ever cried. It was actually the first time that she bawled so hard. She soaked her pillow with her tears and clutched her mattress with one tight fist. She finally had a bed, but it was only a futon. She did not want anything too elaborate and she did not feel right about letting Shego buy her a bed after all of the things that the green-skinned sidekick had purchased her.

After a few hours and a few good sobs, Yori heard her door quietly open. She was surprised by it and turned to see who was coming in, even though she could guess who. She was not stunned to see Shego walking toward her. The older woman had picked the lock to the door to get in.

Shego looked around Yori's room for a moment and she probably would have laughed if only the situation was not so serious. Yori's room was covered in those wall scrolls that she went nuts over when they went to the mall. There were a couple of posters too. On her dresser, which was made of a rich, light-colored wood, she had her manga all lined up neatly.

The pale woman's gaze then fell on Yori. Her expression dropped, showing some sorrow along with concern. It would seem that the time alone had not helped Yori in any way, which hit Shego just as potently now as Yori's feelings had earlier. The kid had a powerful hold on her, Shego dared to think.

"Shego-san…" Yori sniffled, wishing that she could just hide under her bed now. She did not want the plasma-wielder to see her crying. Unfortunately, there was no underneath her bed.

Shego sighed, but she did not say anything. She sat down on Yori's bed, having to move the ninja's legs to do so. She let Yori's legs rest in her lap as she made herself comfortable. Yori was not sure if she wanted to look away or ask Shego what she was doing. She actually did not do either, surprising them both with her next actions. Yori turned herself around and leaned into Shego while starting to cry more.

"I'm guessing you know Little Miss Perfect and her buffoon," Shego commented, even though that one was obvious.

"I couldn't even explain what I'm doing to my friends! How can I explain this to myself if I can't explain it to them? What am I even doing, Shego-san? What?" Yori begged to know.

"Well, before anything else, you need to calm down. Take a deep breath and try to stop crying," the thief sagely commanded.

Yori nodded and obeyed. She took a deep breath, but her tears continued to fall. She could not believe how upset Ron was with her. Her lungs decided to stop working as she remembered the disappointed look in his eyes. She paused in her crying because of her pain and the throbbing it caused through out her entire being. Shego recognized the move; she supposed that having to deal with whiny little brothers when she was younger came in handy.

Shego put her arms around Yori and pressed the ninja against her in order to comfort her. Yori responded more from instinct than anything else when she returned the embrace. It had been many, many years since the Japanese woman had been hugged, especially to bring her comfort. The last person that did such a thing was probably her mother, Yori figured.

"What am I supposed to do? What?" Yori softly begged to know. "They're my friends. I don't want to hurt my friends. But, I can't betray my school. I just can't. What do I do?" she asked, her eyes darting all over the place because she was so lost.

"I told you already, you need to calm down first. If you settle down, you'll be able to figure out what you can do about this. It's time for you to do something for yourself or you're just going to keep feeling like crap. Life isn't here for you to feel like that. You should be able to hold your head up high and do something you're proud of. You can't carry this shame forever," Shego said firmly, squeezing the ninja a bit. "You have to be true to yourself before anyone else."

"And how will this help me keep my friends?" Yori asked in a panic. That was something that was very important to her. She did not have many friends in life, if any outside of Kim and Ron.

"If they're really your friends, they'll understand what you need to do," Shego lied. Well, she believed that she was lying. People were not that well-adjusted, she thought. She knew that Kim would be all kinds of pissed if Yori continued doing what she was doing, just like Shego would be pissed if Yori decided to leave.

Yori nodded; she liked that answer. She wanted Kim and Ron to understand her position, but then again, she wanted to be able to explain it to them. She could not even get the explanation out because of the shame that she felt when she was caught. She had never experienced such stomach-churning humiliation.

"Shego-san…" Yori whispered.

"Hmm?" the pale woman replied.

"Does it bother you that I know them?" It was a fear that just hit the ninja. She knew her employer's enemies, enemies that he seemed to share with Shego. Now, she was scared that she might lose Shego because she knew Kim and Ron, which was almost as horrible as losing those two because she was employed by Drakken.

Shego scoffed. "I've lived with them. So, no," she answered honestly. Hell, she was a stone's skip away from being something-that-looked-like-friends with Kim even now.

Yori made a puzzled face. "Lived with them?"

"Well, with Kimmie anyway. It's a long, weird story. Anyway, you knew them before you got here and I'm not gonna fault you on that. As long as you don't leak to them where I'm going to be when I'm out having fun, it doesn't bother me much," Shego replied with a shrug.

"So, I can be your friend and their friend?" Yori inquired in a small voice, which was caused by deep hope.

"You don't get in my way and you can always be my friend," the green-skinned woman replied, even though that sounded odd to her. When was the last time she called someone a friend, after all?

The response did bring Yori some comfort. So, she just needed to figure out how she could remain friends with Kim and Ron and also stick with Shego, as she liked being around the pale woman. It seemed like it would be rather difficult to do since they were on opposite sides, but she really felt like it was something that she _needed_ to do. She needed to finally listen to Shego and do it for herself.

While trying to think, Yori unconsciously leaned closer into Shego. It seemed that the body warmth and comforting form was a magnet for her. Shego noticed the pressure immediately, but found herself enjoying it, so she did not complain. She pulled Yori in closer, hoping that the ninja was going to be all right.

They sat there in silence for a long time. Yori figured out that she found Shego's breathing soothing, the rise and fall of Shego's chest was almost like someone rocking her to sleep. The ninja easily slipped into slumber, practically resting in Shego's lap. The pale woman fell asleep too.

Yori woke up to find herself lying down, even though she knew that she had gone to sleep sitting up. She felt arms around her, so she knew that she was still with Shego. Shego had fallen over only a moment ago, laying them both down, and that was actually what had woken Yori up.

The teen looked up and studied the sleeping face of the first person to physically comfort her since her mother. She did not want to lose Shego, so she guessed that she was going to continue to work with Drakken, but she did not want to lose Kim and Ron either. Shego said that they could always be friends and she believed that, so she guessed that she did not have to worry about that too much, which was a weight lifted off the ninja.

Yori cuddled into the older woman a little more, delighting in the contact in a way that she never had before. She turned her attention back to Shego's face. She guessed that sleeping was the only time that Shego ever looked harmless, docile, and maybe even a little angelic. Her mouth was slightly parted, her tongue barely visible and Yori found her gaze locked onto that.

"I wonder…" Yori muttered to herself. She found herself wondering what Shego tasted like. And even though she figured that it was a weird thought, she continued to think it.

She decided to find out while she had the chance. She bit her lip, feeling the nip of nervousness at her throat. She swallowed that down, reminding herself that Shego assured her that they would be friends no matter what. Besides, Shego was the one that kept implying all sorts of dirty things, so she probably would not mind. And she was sleeping, so she would not know, in case she might get mad.

Yori leaned in boldly, licking her lip, before she made contact. She really was not doing much, just pressing her mouth against Shego's and it did not seem like anything really to her. And then the next thing she knew, those lips were kissing her back, which was when she did start to feel something beyond the physical sensation. Her eyes opened wide in amazement and she could somehow tell that Shego was smiling, even though those emerald eyes were still shut and her mouth was busy.

"Shego-san…" Yori whispered in awe as she pulled away.

"Go back to sleep, cherry blossom," Shego muttered. "We'll talk in the morning."

Yori nodded and settled back into against Shego's body. The thief held onto Yori just a little tighter, almost possessively. They both easily fell back to sleep.

* * *

Next time: the end.


	6. The start of something new

I don't own these characters.

6: The start of something new

"Wade, any fix on Drakken?" Kim inquired, speaking to the genius through the wrist Kimmunicator. She was sitting in Bueno Nacho with Ron, who was frowning deeply and had not touched his Naco, which he believed counted as breakfast food.

Kim was trying not to pay Ron too much mind while conducting business because she believed that she could help him by pressing on, finding Drakken, thus finding Yori and Ron would have a chance to talk with her or move forward in accepting that she was bad guy now if that was what she was. Kim knew that if she focused too much on him, she would just want to comfort him and get him to stop looking like the world was coming to an end. She had tried last night to ease his worry and betrayed feelings, but she had no luck in it. So, now, she was trying to do something beyond the physical comforting. Only answers would be able to help her life-long friend.

"I got nothing so far," Wade answered with a shrug because he lacked anything better to do. Drakken was being pretty quiet with his plan, which was something that was worrisome since the last time that Drakken was quiet about his plan he had nearly succeeded.

"Well, what about what he stole?" the redhead asked curiously.

"Well, it's a highly concentrated experimental formula to seed clouds," he explained.

"You mean to make it rain?"

"Exactly. I'm guessing from that and the power cell that Shego stole for him a while ago is part of a weather machine or something," Wade commented, almost bored.

"Didn't he do that already?" Kim wondered aloud with a puzzled look on her face. She had had a lot of missions in her hero career, but she was pretty sure that Drakken had already tried the weather machine angle.

"He's probably running out of ideas," Wade offered without missing a beat.

Kim did not argue that one since she found it to be quite plausible. She was actually stunned that Drakken could still come up with schemes after so many years. He needed something better to do with his time in her opinion. Surely he could actually do something for the good of mankind if he would just put his mind to it and then people might take him seriously, she thought.

The hero glanced up at her best friend/boyfriend, just to check on him. He continued to look sour, like he failed to save the world or something. She wanted to reach other the table and take his hand in hers while assuring him that everything would be fine. She tried that already though and he looked at her as if she was liar, which actually hurt her. It was that that made her aware that her touch and her words were not going to be nearly enough to heal his wounds, especially not so soon after he received them.

She knew why that was. Ron felt betrayed by Yori, he felt lied to, and like every time the ninja pushed him to do the right thing, she was just manipulating him into doing what she wanted him to do. He was wounded to the depth of his soul, which he actually felt like he did not have anymore. It was like Yori sucked his whole spirit out of him when he saw that she was working with Drakken.

He trusted Yori, trusted her with not just his life, but with his sister's life and she would dare work for Drakken! Ron's mind was fuming, boiling his spirit, and only paining him more as he seethed over it. It was surprising that smoke was not coming from the top of his head and out of his ears from the heated, fiery feeling burning in his gut. Yori might have had just stabbed him in the heart, in his opinion. At least that would have killed him and he would not have to live with his current tornado of emotions.

Ron actually had a headache from the pain dealt to him. The headache was only getting worse as his face seemed to be permanently stuck in a scowl. It was joined by a burning in his stomach that was caused by the turmoil that he was experiencing too. He did not care about his physical aliments much and hardly noticed them thanks to everything else pressing down on him, threatening to squash him flatter than a sheet of paper.

Kim turned her attention back to Wade. "Um…had any luck figuring out that other matter?" she asked curiously.

"Not really. They cover their tracks pretty well there, as you know. I'm still looking around, though," Wade answered.

Kim requested that Wade try to find out what Yori was doing with Drakken, not because she believed that it was something deeper to it, but because she wanted to help Ron. Wade was trying to dig because he wanted to help Ron too; hey, Ron was his pal just as much as Kim was. Wade suspected that Yori's presence had something to do with Yamanouchi, but he could not figure out what because they did not leave traces of their operations anywhere. The only thing that they could tell Ron was that they suspected Yamanouchi was involved to explain Yori being around, hoping the thin theory would lift his spirits. It sort of worked.

"So, you think Yori's working on the inside to maybe bring Drakken down?" Ron asked with hope as he finally looked up at his girlfriend. He needed to believe that Yori was not a bad guy.

Kim looked away for a moment. She really did not want to burst the blonde's bubble since he seemed like he was going back to his usual, chipper self. He had not had his usual energy since the mission last night. In fact, he had been like a zombie since then, so she really did not want to take away his first signs of life.

"Well, I didn't say all that," she muttered, speaking more to the table top than her boyfriend. She probably could have been a bit more supportive if she tried, but she still had a secret jealous spot over the ninja. She knew it was petty and now that she was getting older, she was trying to get over it, but it was a slow road that she traveled.

"That's probably it. Some secret ninja thing to stop Drakken once again for all. That's why she said it was a mission!" Ron proclaimed with a grin more to himself than anyone else. He punched his fist into his palm as he spoke because he was certain that he figured things out. He felt loads better now. He started to eat his breakfast while making plans to talk things over with Yori when he saw her again.

Kim frowned, being less convinced of her boyfriend's confidence that the ninja was working covertly. She was instead more interested in finding out where Drakken had disappeared off to. She tapped her fingers on the table lightly and waited for Wade to get back to her with news on Drakken.

* * *

Yori had been awake for hours, but she did not move at all. She was still pressed against Shego, as she had been for most of the night. Shego was asleep, breathing in a way that Yori discovered was very soothing to her only last night. She would not mind if Shego slept for the whole day as long as she could hear and feel the older woman breathing.

She had never been near someone in recent times to where she could appreciate something simple like the rhythm of the breathing. She had never been calm enough to where she could appreciate something such as breathing either. Her life was more turmoil than she ever cared to admit, but now, she realized just how messed up everything had been for her and that was thanks Shego…well, thanks to Shego and Ron's outrage.

It was in her calm, waking hours that Yori was able figure out what she should do about her current predicament. She was all right with the idea that came to mind, even though it did involve some dishonesty. At least it was dishonesty to do the right thing, which she found herself all right with. She had been doing dishonest things for so long and it bothered her because it seemed to be for no reason aside for money. She could do something right now that would be beneficial, but she had to hope that it went over well with the people that she cared about. She could not stand losing them, so for them and for herself, she was going to step away from doing everything because of her school.

With that out of the way for the moment, Yori was allowed to then think of the other big thing on her mind. It was the reason that she was anxious for Shego to wake up, even though it would mean the soothing breathing would change. She was thinking about the kiss that they shared, and she had been thinking about it on and off since she woke up. It started out with her trying to sneak a kiss, but she was surprised when Shego returned it last night. Now, she wanted to talk about it and what happened. She wanted to know what would happen next.

Yori was not sure, but she could have sworn for the brief moment that their lips touched, she felt electricity go through her body. When that lightning feeling passed, she just felt a gentle warmness go through her, causing a sensation that she had nothing to compare it to. She wondered if Shego had the same feeling and if kissing was always like that. Last night was her first one.

The ninja guessed that she was about to find out as Shego's breathing against her did change ever so slightly. She watched as Shego's face twitched a bit and then the pale woman yawned a little. She squeaked a bit as Shego pulled her closer.

"Now, that is a cute noise," Shego muttered, showing that she was fully awake now, even though her eyes were still closed. She began to caress Yori's side since her hand was resting there. The Japanese woman was ready to melt just from the gentle petting.

"Shego-san…um…good morning," the ninja said for lack of a better thing to say. She was lucky that she could remember how to speak considering how distracting she found Shego's hands to be.

"Indeed it is. Better than I've had in a months," Shego remarked, opening her eyes to look at the woman in her arms.

Yori smiled a bit. "Thanks for staying with me." She certainly appreciated the fact that Shego stayed with her through out her bleakest moment; she was not sure if anyone else on the planet would do such a thing for her right now.

"No problem. Gave me an excuse to sleep next to a beautiful woman, so I don't have any complaints," the pale woman quipped and that earned her a blush from the ninja.

"You've helped me a lot in the short time we've known each other. I really appreciate it."

"I could tell."

Yori's face scrunched up. "How could you tell?"

"A hint from early this morning sorta clued me in," Shego remarked.

Yori continued to look puzzled for a moment and then it was clear when it dawned on her what Shego was implying. Her mouth opened slightly and her eyebrows shot up. Shego chuckled a bit from the teen's expression; she looked so shocked that it was cute.

"I was hoping to talk to you about that," Yori admitted.

"I figured you would," Shego replied. Yori seemed to need to talk about everything, which was not annoying to her. That was surprising in and of itself, but she was coming to see that she had a lot of patience when it came to the teenager.

"Um…that was my first kiss…" the ninja confessed, looking away as she admitted that. She felt a little bit ridiculous saying that because she felt like Shego knew so much about the world while she was rather limited in almost everything.

The super-powered woman supposed that made sense, but she was still shocked by it. "Your first one? But, you're about to be nineteen," she pointed out, stating the obvious because of her shock.

The ninja looked away again for a moment. "I know. I've been focused on my training most of my life and the only person I ever considered kissing aside for you was Stoppable-san."

The pale woman was shocked again, which would explain why her mouth was gaped open and her eyes were open wide. Or maybe she was disgusted, she was not too sure. It was just creepy to know that Yori was attracted to Ron and was now attracted to her.

"The buffoon?" Shego said incredulously. "Ah, don't even bring him up while I'm in bed. Geez," she groaned. She supposed that she was going to have to work passed that because she was not letting the ninja go.

Yori giggled a bit since she could tell that Shego was being overly dramatic. She silently admitted that things were a bit weird for her too. After all, she liked a boy first and now she suddenly liked a woman. It did not bother her though because liking anyone was foreign territory to her. It was not like she learned anything about sexuality and things of that nature while she was training at Yamanouchi.

"I was wondering…I mean, kissing you felt really good. Is it supposed to feel that way?" the teen asked curiously.

"Doy. If it didn't feel good, people wouldn't do it so much," Shego commented with a smart-aleck smirk on her face.

Yori conceded that point. "So, it felt good to you?"

"Hmm…" Shego pretended to muse on her response. She then answered by leaning down and kissing Yori rather deeply.

The ninja tensed for a moment just because of the surprise, but she quickly relaxed as she realized that was happening. Her eyes closed on their own while she was taken in by the feeling of Shego's mouth against hers. That warm feeling that she felt before returned and she was ready to melt into Shego. A part of her brain registered that Shego's hands were massaging her hips, which only made the warm feeling more intense.

Shego would be able to relate to Yori's reaction to the kiss. It was quite the delight and she would not mind doing it more often. When Shego pulled away, Yori whimpered in protest.

"That answer your question, cherry blossom?" Shego asked, smirking a bit.

Yori licked her bottom lip, tasting Shego on her mouth. She was not quite sure what she would say the plasma-wielder tasted like. It was more a concept than a flavor. Shego's lips were like a gentle summer rain on a hot, humid night.

"Um…yeah…" the ninja replied in a breathless tone.

"Anything else on your mind?" Shego inquired. She was hoping that it had something to do with biology, but she doubted that it would be. That would probably be rushing things quite a bit, she thought.

"Yeah, a few things. I want to be honest with you since you've helped me so much since I've been here. So, can I tell you the decision I've come to?"

"Hit me with it."

Yori nodded and before she started talking, she curled up more into Shego. She felt more confident in being able to say what she was going to say when she felt Shego's hold on her tighten. Shego also continued caressing her, which only helped.

They had come a long way in such a short period time. They went from having no respect for each other and doubting each other's skill to where they were gladly sharing a bed. Not to mention Yori was sharing plots on what she was going to do with her life. They both figured that they would be together for a good while too; they would see just how far what they started could go.

* * *

Shego and Yori were standing next to each other in the main room of the lair. They were supposed to be focusing on two things. The first thing that they were supposed to behold was the large, cylinder-shaped machine the center of the room. It went all the way to the ceiling and there was an opening for it to continue on. The second thing that they were supposed to be paying attention to was Drakken, who was doing his tradition rant/explanation of what his machine did. They were not doing either of those things.

"Um…are his things always this big?" Yori asked, motioning to the machine with a quick wave of her hand.

"No, but they're usually this dumb," Shego remarked, folding her arms across her chest and rolling her eyes, which was directed at Drakken.

"What's it supposed to do?" the ninja asked.

"From what I can tell, from not listening to him, he's going to use it to seed the clouds and rain down this brainwashing shampoo he invented a couple of years ago that he still seems to have a bunch of," the pale woman explained in her usual smart ass tone.

"And…what's he talking about?" Yori asked while pointing at Drakken, who was walking a few feet away from them while going on and on, oblivious to the fact that they were not listening to him.

"Who cares," Shego replied with a shrug. Yori nodded and mimicked Shego in not caring.

Drakken continued rambling as far as his two sidekicks were concerned. Little did he know, while he was talking, they were making plans for later on. They only turned to look at him when the room was silent. He did not look pleased when they met his gaze.

"You're not listening to me!" Drakken huffed, stomping his foot and making fists.

"Sure we are," Shego lied and then she shrugged. "Well, we're doing something like listening."

"If you don't listen to me, how are you supposed to know how the machine works," he pointed out in a heated tone while motioning to the weather machine.

"Well, you're making the assumption that we give a damn how the machine works," she countered calmly.

"The hurting words, Shego," Drakken commented with a sour expression, turning his mouth up and folding his arms across his chest.

Shego sighed. "Fine, show us how the hopelessly complicated machine works," she said without much feeling. She wished that he would not whine so much; that way she would not have to give into him.

Drakken smiled as he went to show them how the machine worked, having to turn it on first. Shego turned her eyes from the machine to her nails; they were much more interesting than Drakken when he was all excited. Yori stared at the machine for a while, taking in what the blue scientist was doing. It seemed easy, but she suspected that was because Shego gave her a tutorial before Drakken started his rant.

* * *

Kim's Kimmunicator suddenly went off. She wasted no time in answering it. "What's the sitch, Wade?"

"Kim, there was this huge energy signal off of Drakken's volcano lair. I think that might be him activating his machine," Wade reported.

"I'm on it, Wade," Kim informed him.

"Finally," Ron said. He was anxious to get to Yori to apologize to her since he now figured out that she was conducting some secret ninja mission to stop Drakken, although he could not figure out why Yamanouchi was suddenly interested in stopping the mad scientist. The why did not matter to him, though; it was all about the fact that he was certain that she was not a bad guy now.

* * *

"All right, so do you two understand how the machine works?" Drakken inquired, speaking to his two sidekicks.

"Oh yeah," Shego lied. Yori only nodded.

"Are you sure?" he asked suspiciously. He probably would have believed them if only Shego was not filing her nails as she spoke.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she replied flippantly. The ninja nodded again.

"All right, then let's fire this bad boy up and get to building my brainwashed army! Now, where should I hit first?" Drakken wondered aloud, a finger to his chin, showing that he was pondering a location.

"Yamanouchi," Shego volunteered with a bright smile. She would like to see how they liked being mind-raped.

"Shego-san!" Yori objected with a slightly upset expression on her face. She knew that Shego held no love for her school, but it was her school. She would even concede that they had messed with her mind a little bit, but they still made her who she was, so she did not want to see any harm befall them.

"What? It's just a little harmless brainwashing shampoo," the green-skinned woman commented in a light tone, as if it was nothing serious.

"Leave Yamanouchi out of it," Yori said.

"Fine, fine, fine. I retract my offer," Shego replied with a sigh.

"What about Iceland?" Drakken proposed. He figured that might be a way to sneak back into Shego's good graces since he had upset her about wanting to fire Yori. After all, Shego seemed to be interested in having control over Iceland.

Shego shrugged, disinterested. Yori did not see the big deal about Iceland. Drakken sighed and frowned from his sidekicks' lack of interest in his scheme. He turned his attention to a computer panel, which would be where he programmed coordinates in for his machine to hit a certain area.

"Come on, where should I hit?" Drakken begged to know. He wanted some input.

"I know where you should get hit," a voice remarked from the top of the machine.

"Kim Possible?" Drakken gasped in shock as he and his minions looked up.

"Does he always say that when she shows up?" Yori asked Shego.

"I'm guessing he likes knowing he can remember something," Shego remarked with a half-smile. "So, I've got Possible. You handle…Stoppable," she muttered as if the name tasted bitter in her mouth. She figured that she was going to have to get used to it a bit since he was such a good friend to Yori.

"Hey, she finally remembered my name!" Ron cheered, grinning as he felt that he was finally getting some respect from the pale woman.

"I'm happy for you, sweetie," Kim said sarcastically as she jumped down, only to be met by Shego.

"Keep them away from the machine!" Drakken ordered.

"I'm on it," Shego replied, keeping Kim occupied as usual.

Ron jumped down from the machine, proud to not get snagged by anything on the way down. He was about to start touching things on the computer panel since he landed close, but he suddenly found himself in Yori's grip. She flung him away from the machine since her orders were to "keep them away from the machine."

"Yori, what're ya doing?" Ron implored while trying to catch his balance.

"I'm keeping you away from the machine," Yori replied while standing between him and Drakken, who was still standing by the computer of his machine.

"Wait, wait, wait, you're actually listening to Drakken?" Ron inquired incredulously, throwing his hands out in disbelief. Now, he was confused. Was Yori trying to help Drakken win by keeping him away from the machine? That did not make any sense because it did not match up with the fact that he was sure that the Japanese woman supposed to be undercover to ruin Drakken's scheme.

"He is my employer," Yori informed the blonde. Her tone was cold, which was only baffling her blonde friend all the more.

"What are you talking about?" Ron screamed, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Isn't this some big secret ninja mission thing?"

"Something like that," Yori replied, still sounding frozen and indifferent toward Ron.

"Did Drakken 'chip you? He did it to Kim and Shego once. He got you too, I'll bet," Ron figured. There had to be some rational explanation for why Yori was on the bad guys' side and he was willing to go down a list of not-so-rational explanations until he got to the real reason.

"What is chipped?" the ninja asked curiously.

"Shego, why isn't the ninja girl fighting the buffoon?" Drakken inquired in an annoyed voice as he watched Yori just standing there.

"A little busy, Doctor D," Shego replied. She was busy trying to claw Kim in half from what the redhead could tell.

"What the hell did you two do to Yori?" Kim demanded to know while dodging the plasma-charged attack.

"Oh, you don't even want me to start answering that question, pumpkin," Shego remarked with a devilish smirk.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kim growled. She was not sure how to take the implications, but considering the things that Drakken had done in the past, she was with Ron on considering that Yori might actually be chipped.

Shego did not respond. Well, she supposed that it was nice that people Yori assumed were her friends were worried about her. It showed that she did not get all worked up over nothing and that her friends were worth fighting for. Shego was actually happy that she decided to support Yori in trying to keep her friends, even if they were Possible and Stoppable, who were their enemies. Well, they were enemies when they clock was going anyway.

"I know! I'll make it rain in here and then Kim Possible will be my slave because of the shampoo!" Drakken declared with a grin. He obviously thought that was quite the brilliant plan.

"He's going to make it rain brainwashing shampoo in a room that we're all standing in…" Shego commented, speaking more to herself than anyone else. It was just that the idiocy involved in that move amazed her.

"He doesn't think these things out at all anymore, does he?" Kim asked Shego with a deadpan look on her face.

"Did he ever really think these things out?" Shego countered with an almost twin expression.

Kim shrugged since she thought that Shego had a point. They halted their fight, silently agreeing on a timeout as Drakken turned his attention to the computer keyboard. Yori and Ron were intrigued with what was going on by the machine too. They all turned to see Drakken typing into the computer. He was actually going to make it rain brainwashing shampoo in a room where not only his sidekicks were standing, but so was he. Shego turned to look at him, just curious if he really was that freaking out of his little mind. She grabbed Kim as the redhead tried to rush Drakken.

"What the hell?" the hero said as she was yanked back by Shego. She could not believe that she was being halted from saving them all from Drakken's loony plan by someone with a brain.

"Wait for it, cupcake," Shego remarked with a smile.

"Are you nuts?" Kim demanded to know. The pale woman shrugged while keeping a good grip on the redhead. Kim turned her attention to Ron. "Ron, stop Drakken."

"I'm on it, K.P," Ron called and he tried to go forward, but Yori continued to block his path. "Yori, get outta the way!" he pled, hands up in a begging position.

"I cannot do that, Stoppable-san," Yori said in a firm tone.

"That's right, ninja girl, keep the buffoon away from me while I enter these coordinates," Drakken stated. He seemed thrilled with Yori now, even though he was not using her name.

"Yori, move!" Ron begged desperately.

"I cannot," she repeated.

"And now, Kim Possible will be mine!" Drakken cackled as he hit the enter button on his computer. Kim gasped while Ron's jaw practically hit the floor; Drakken won from what they could tell. And then, the whole machine started to explode. "What's going on?" Drakken begged to know while looking up at the machine as smoke began to pour out of it.

"Same thing as always. Let's get the hell out of here!" Shego called, knowing things were not going to end well. She was actually speaking to everyone and they seemed to know that.

The pale woman went to grab Drakken as the computer blew up near him. He nearly lost his fingers, but Shego got to him just in time. She then grabbed up Yori as the explosions began getting larger. While Drakken was wondering what was going on, Shego pointed to an exit for the two heroes to use while the villains went out the opposite way. Kim and Ron did not question why Shego helped them and just ducked out before things got worse, which they did. The machine flared up as huge chunks of hot metal flew from it, tearing through other items around the lab and lair.

"Did Shego just help us?" Ron asked curiously as he and Kim made it safely to the beach outside of the liar.

"I think she did," Kim replied.

"Um…okay, why?" he inquired in a baffled tone. He was starting to think that he was just in a dream with how backwards everything seemed. The only thing that made sense was that Drakken's machine blew up.

"Hell if I know," the redhead answered honestly. She was starting to agree with Ron. Maybe they were both stuck in a nightmare. She was trying to think if they might have eaten something that was either bad or that they had just eaten too late one night and that was bringing on peculiar dreams.

* * *

"Why does this always happen!" Drakken cried to the heavens as they escaped the exploding lair in a hovercraft. He was sitting in the backseat lamenting how close he was to winning that time. His sidekicks were in the front seats with Shego acting as the pilot.

"You okay?" Shego asked Yori with concern. She looked over at the younger woman to make sure that she did not have any visible wounds or scratches. The ninja appeared to be quite all right.

"I'm fine. You?" Yori nodded and then countered back. She also looked Shego over for any injures, but did not see anything out of the ordinary. The pale woman was not even breathing hard from having to tug Drakken to the hovercraft.

"Still in one piece. Good thing we moved our stuff out before that little mix up. Did you know that was going to happen?" Shego inquired in a low tone with an intrigued expression.

"Well, I really didn't think it would be that big," Yori admitted with an embarrassed look on her face.

"I'm going to have to teach you how to read blueprints better," Shego sighed and shook her head. Yori only smiled sheepishly.

--(New day)

"Okay, I don't get it. What the hell is Yori doing with Drakken? I mean she totally blocked me from turning off the machine. I mean we got lucky that the thing exploded!" Ron griped as he and Kim were headed into to Bueno Nacho. She was going to treat him to hopefully calm him down.

"Ron, I think you just have to face it that Yori's a bad guy now," Kim commented because that seemed to be the easiest and most logical explanation. It was either that or back to the bad dream theory.

"Wow, Princess, you don't have any faith at all in the little ninja, huh?" Shego queried from behind the couple, causing them to whip around. They were face to face with Shego and Yori, both of whom were in street clothes. In fact, the two raven-haired beauties were dressed semi-formally, both looking their best.

"What're you two doing here?" Kim demanded to know as she tensed up, ready to throw down it seemed.

"Will you cut that out! Damn it," Shego huffed. "Save people's asses and they still act all uptight when they see you. We're off the clock. Drakken's all depressed over what happened," she commented, sounding rather amused.

"Then what do you want?" Kim asked, relaxing for the most part. She knew that Shego being off the clock was better than any truce that they could ever call.

"Yori's looking to talk to you two for a second," Shego answered and she motioned over to Yori.

The ninja took a step forward and looked at her friends. She was silent for a moment, just needing to find her voice. She made sure to keep eye contact with them, though. She wanted them to be able to look at her and see that she was not as terrible as they thought she was. She was still the same Yori that they knew, just in different circumstances. Hell, she might actually end up being better than the Yori that they knew and for that, she could hold her head up high. After all, she was finally doing something to help them instead of the other way around.

"I know you think very ill of me, but working for Drakken was not my choice. He hired me through Yamanouchi, but that still doesn't make this right. I'm sorry that you had to see me this way, but just because I do this job doesn't mean that I'm against you," the ninja explained.

"You work for our arch foe," Kim pointed out.

"I follow his orders, but I have my own mind. I am going to continue to be paid by this man, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with what he does. It also doesn't mean that I have to be totally against you two," Yori insisted.

"You're not making any sense," Ron of all people pointed out.

Yori reached out and took Ron's hand. He was going to ask her what she was doing, but then he saw her place something in his palm. He looked confused.

"What're these things?" Ron inquired. He was now holding few small metallic black cylinders.

"They're from the machine that was going to turn everyone into mindless slaves," Yori answered with a bit of a smile.

"Wait, is this why it blew up?" Ron asked.

"Yes. He ordered me to steal pieces to build the machine and he ordered me to keep you away from it, but he never said anything about me not touching it or taking parts away from it," Yori commented with more of a smile. She was rather proud of herself, it seemed.

"Oh! You sly fox, you!" Ron grinned. She was not a bad guy. She was more like a man on the inside, so to speak.

Ron was so overcome with joy that Yori was not a bad guy that he grabbed her into a tight hug. It was appropriate, but still bothered two people present, Kim and Shego. They decided not to say anything and let Ron and Yori have their moment. After all, they both needed it.

"Oh, man! I'm so sorry for blowing up on you like I did, Yori!" Ron apologized wholeheartedly. He pulled away a bit to look her in the eye. "I am so sorry for that," he reiterated.

"It's all right, Ron-san. I think I needed it," Yori admitted. If it was not for the blonde's outburst, she never would have realized how messed up she truly was. Or her self-discovery would have taken much longer. Thanks to his raw emotion and pain from seeing her do such terrible things, she was able to wake up and see just how much she was hurting herself and those around her by doing something that she knew was quite wrong.

He made a skeptical face. "You needed me to yell at you like that?"

"You brought me off a path I disliked traveling, but was going to bear the burden of. But, your anger let me know that someone out there cares about what I do with my life and my life is my own. I need to start thinking about myself and those that care about me," she explained.

"Wow, I did all that?" Ron asked in an impressed tone.

"Yes, Ron-san, you and, well, a little bit of someone else," Yori replied with a shy smile.

"Well, me and someone else kick ass to get you screw up Drakken's machine like that. Man, you really had me going for a second, though. I mean, for a while I thought you were a complete and total bad guy," he informed her.

"I might as well have been. But, now, I'm going to step into a little grey area and hope I'm comfortable with it. It was nice to help you guys out and ruin that machine," Yori admitted with a smile.

"Well, that makes up for one thing, but what about all of the stealing?" Kim pointed out, hoping that it would get Yori to step away from Ron now as they had been embracing long enough in her opinion. Shego agreed with that assessment.

"I have a contract. It is my honor to uphold my contract," Yori replied.

"It was also her honor to force me to carry that damn power cell back to where we got it," Shego grumbled with a frown, folding her arms across her chest. She was not sure what was more annoying, returning the power cell or locating it in all of that rubble from the destroyed lair. Ron and Kim thought that was an odd thing for her to say but chose to ignore it for the moment.

"So, you're going to keep stealing?" Ron asked curiously, focusing on the ninja.

"Well, yes and no. I'm hoping to take things to Drakken and then return them later on when he's not watching," she explained.

"Well, Yori, since you're not a bad guy really and you're not on the clock, you can hang out with us, then," Ron suggested with a bright smile. He felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off of his shoulders knowing that she was not evil.

"Um…I can't actually…" Yori replied with a blush invading her cheeks.

"No? Why? You can't hang out with us off the clock?" he inquired nervously.

"It's not that actually. I just have plans tonight. But, you can call me. I just got a cell phone," Yori said with girlish glee. She had never had her own cell phone, as in a line of her own to take private calls on. Shego had just taken her to get one yesterday.

"Um…okay…" Ron answered in a confused tone. He could not figure out why she was so happy to have a cell phone. After all, as far as he knew, everyone had a cell phone.

Yori recited her number for the blonde. He wrote her number down on his hand with a pen that was in his pocket. Kim quickly programmed the digits into her Kimmunicator because she knew he was bound to forget it was there, wipe or wash it off by accident, and then lament over how he lost the number.

"So, how does this work?" Kim asked curiously, referring to how Yori was going to be working for Drakken.

"It should work just like it did the other day, except we'll all be aware of what's happening. We sort of put on a decent show, I guess," the Japanese teen answered.

"Sounds good. I'm glad you're still one of the good guys, Yori," Ron said, still smiling up a storm.

"It's nice to be something like one of the good guys," Yori replied. She supposed that she had a long road ahead of her to get where she really wanted to be, but she was content with the start that she made.

"Hey, what're your plans for tonight anyway?" Ron asked curiously.

"Oh, Shego is taking me to the movies," Yori answered with a smile as she stepped back next to the pale woman, who put a possessive arm around the ninja's waist. "I've never actually been in a movie theater."

"To the movies? Like friends?" Ron inquired with a baffled look on his face because of where Shego's arm was situated.

"No, not like friends," Shego answered with a devilish smile. "You put those pieces together yourself. Yori's already handed you everything else, so you use your head this time."

Shego led the Japanese woman away to their car. Yori turned her head to smile at her friends. She waved at them while they just stood there dumfounded, their mouths opened wide from shock and their eyebrows curled up from confusion.

"Do you think they're…?" Ron asked, trailing off because he could not even imagine Yori like that. After all, last time he checked, she liked him, meaning she liked guys.

"You know what, Ron, I think we've learned enough about Yori for one night. Let's just be happy she's still on our side," Kim replied with a smile.

Ron nodded, even though he was still a bit shocked that Yori appeared to be dating Shego. It actually was not an appearance, Yori was dating Shego. So far, they were doing all right, helping each other in a way. Yori was finding her way in the world thanks to Shego and Shego was finding that her compassion, understanding, and several other positive emotions had not withered away while being locked away for the most part. They got to know each other much better while doing regular dates until Drakken got another crazy idea. The inevitable happened, of course; Kim and Ron showed up to put a stop to Drakken's scheme.

"Um…before we start, is this explosion going to be as big as that first one?" Ron asked Yori in a whisper as they pretended to face off. "I mean, I almost lost my eyebrows to that one."

"To be honest, I don't know. Shego refuses to help me pull parts out and she's the one that knows about machines way better than I do. Just be ready to run when he touches a button," Yori answered in a whisper of her own. She was on her own when it came to sabotage since the furthest Shego would go was to explain to her the blueprints and tell her what she should probably yank out. Shego figured that a degree of separation between her and the actual sabotage would spare her conscience when Drakken started whining about how close he was to winning. She also liked to tell herself that Drakken was never actually going to win anyway and it eased her little ninja's nerves to do something for the good of people, so she was fine with things.

"This is just wild," Ron said with a chuckle and then he went at Yori to make it look good.

* * *

The end.


End file.
